Velocity
by Just Another Tree Hugger
Summary: A new heroine speeds into Dakota. The yellow clad hero competes with Static, flirts with Richie, and manages to get into some trouble with the local meta-humans.
1. City Traffic Puzzle

**Alright first off I'd like to apologize. This is my first fic on this site, and I have to ruin this milestone occasion by making it an OC story. So I'm sorry world.**

**Secondly, let's meet the character shall we? Eleanor (Ellie) Covelli is 15-years-old and she used to live in Dakota when she was two because her parents were scientists. It just so happens there was an accident in the laboratory (I know, I'm sorry, the old comic book cliché, Dr. Manhattan, Spiderman… gah, I was uncreative, lets move on.) and Ellie can't remember what happened or who was responsible. But ever since then she's been able run at an incredible speed. Like, The Flash speed. And when they moved from Dakota to New York City, Ellie started her super hero career as "Velocity". So Ellie's been perfectly content with running around and fighting crime in a tight yellow costume with a black "V" across her chest. But now the research center in Dakota wants her father, Malcolm Covelli to come back to work for them. So now that they've returned to the city where her accident happened, Ellie's determined to find out who was responsible for it. But along the way she gets pretty competitive with Static and she just so happens to find a mutual attraction with Richie.**

**Thirdly, I've kinda been catching this show on DisneyDX, but other than a few episodes I've seen recently, I haven't seen this show in like 5 years. So please cut me a break if I'm a little out of character or I've messed up a detail. I'm trying to remember the best I can.**

**Fourthly, this is placed right BEFORE Richie becomes Gear. So this is placed in like the second season-ish. This also means that Ebon is still suspicious of Richie's connection to Static and such. Hint, hint at a possible future chapter there...**

**Fifthlyness, I have rated this teen just to be safe. There's not much swearing or violence or anything. **

**Sixth order of business: This happens to be my first story, so constructive criticism is welcome. But please, my little flamers, no one likes it when you try and act tough over the computer.**

**Lastly: I do not own Static Shock. I don't think I even own my life, my daddy claims it belongs to him and he's a pretty smart dude.**

**"This cars caving in, rains on in the city traffic puzzle. Shifting pieces just like my stomach, were both so upset. Love sick and sick of it, we're both on the same page."-City Traffic Puzzle, The Hush Sound.**

* * *

"I _hate_ traffic!" Ellie Covelli groaned miserably as she fidgeted in the backseat. She had taken off her seat belt so she could slide from the right seat to the center seat. To her annoyance four large boxes occupied the left seat limiting her amount of space. She craned her neck to try and see how far the traffic went. When she couldn't see past the blue Honda that was nine cars ahead of them, she stuck half her body out of the window to get a better look at the urban jungle. The cars were packed tightly together and it all just seemed to go on forever. She let out a frustrated yell and then let her body slump over the edge of the window. "MOVE!" she whined at the automobiles. Her father had just about enough of his daughter's fidgeting

"Eleanor, would you please relax and get your head back in the car?" Malcolm Covelli questioned. She reluctantly pulled herself back into the car and rolled her window up. Traffic was aggravating for the teen; it was painfully slow and agonizing. Ellie hated when things moved slowly, it was so opposite of her nature. Maybe music would calm her down. She leaned over, so she was in between her father in the driver's seat and her brother Pete who was in the passenger's seat. She fumbled around with the radio until she found a fast paced rock song and then she sat back and tapped her foot rapidly with the beat. Malcolm sighed and rubbed his temples; half wishing he had just let her hang out the window.

"This music is gonna give me an aneurysm." He stated.

"Well, you could buy me a new iPod, then I'd have headphones." she flashed a cheesy grin hoping he'd go along with it. She recalled the horrible day when her beloved iPod had slipped from her pocket during a run and shattered into a thousand pieces against the sidewalk. She had been pretty devastated but Malcolm stated he wasn't going to replace it just because she was careless.

"Yeah but then I'll have to listen to you sing along." he stated.

"More like screech along." Pete interrupted from the passenger's seat. Ellie kicked the back of his seat playfully.

"You are so just jealous of my gorgeous voice… it's like a… chorus of angels that morphed with John Lennon… I am a _beast_ at singing, okay?" She stated dramatically.

"Sure, Eleanor." Pete agreed sarcastically, he turned and looked out the window as well, "This traffic _is_ pretty ridiculous, I wonder what's going on down there." The answer to his question came quickly as Talon zoomed by only a few inches away from their car. Ellie looked over curiously as Static appeared not too far behind her. The glowing electricity radiating in his palms caught her eye. He fired it off right at Talon's left wing and she fell out of the sky quickly. Ebon attacked him from behind, and Static quickly shot some electricity through Ebon making him cringe for only a second. Ellie perked up quickly.

"Rad! Meta-human action!" Ellie said with excitement. Before she could even think impulse took over and she reached for her backpack. Malcolm shot her a glare from the front seat.

"Don't even think about it." He ordered firmly.

"Please with sugar…" Ellie stuck out her bottom lip and leaned into the front seat again.

"Absolutely not, Eleanor." Malcolm said curtly, "You don't know the city, you'll get lost." Ellie sighed and sank back into her seat. There was no use arguing with him.

"This place is lame already." She stated and tugged at her jeans, "You know I can feel myself gaining weight from lack of running already." She announced.

"Good, you should gain weight, you're disturbingly corpse-like." Peter said. Ellie kicked the back of his seat again, only not as playfully as last time.

"If anyone's corpse-like it's you, Skeletor!" Her lips were pursed in distaste; Ellie was built fairly tall and very lean. Her legs were long and muscular, and she had a pretty powerful abdomen from all the running she did. She had also gained a small amount of muscle in her arms in the past two years, that she was very proud of. Pete had six inches on her and he had been underweight since he was six.

"God, I was kidding," Pete scoffed, "You're so over sensitive."

"I'm not over sensitive… you're just mean, and I've decided to no longer have any relation to you." Ellie snapped.

"You're probably gonna find that difficult when we end up sharing a bathroom, little sister." He retorted.

"Guys, I have a headache, can we stop fighting?" Malcolm requested. Pete and Ellie both sighed and all talking ceased, so the only noise was the soft buzz of music from the stereo. Ellie looked out the window once again, she could see Static shooting purple bolts into the giant shadowy figure until he howled in defeat and retracted. Static only had a moment to pause before Talon lunged downward at him. Ellie just looked away and let out a long moan. The confines of the car seemed to be shrinking and shrinking, and she couldn't take it anymore.

"Dad, can I drive when we get to the next stop?" Ellie asked. Pete choked as he was sipping on a water bottle.

"Dad… no!" he gasped.

"Shut up Pete!" Ellie growled and then looked over at her dad and resumed her pleading voice, "Please dad, this traffic is moving so slow… it's driving me insane."

"Something is driving you insane? What a coincidence…" Malcolm exclaimed with sarcasm in his voice, when he looked over at his daughter's unchanged face he just sighed and looked forward, "Okay… next stop."

"You're the best!" Ellie kissed his unshaven cheek and retracted back into the backseat.

"I have to start self medicating." Pete sighed. Ellie kicked the back of his seat again, and he turned around, "Quit kicking my seat!" he growled.

"Quit making fun of me!"

"What'd I say about fighting?!" Malcolm growled. The brother and sister both quieted once more. It wasn't common for their father to lose his temper, but moving was stressful and brought out the worst in people. She pressed her head against the car window. Ellie was going to miss New York. She was going to miss the peanuts she picked up for 50 cents everyday after school. She was going to miss the crowded streets, noisy cars, and the polluted air. She was going to miss her friends, even the annoyingly stuck up control freak she called her best friend. She scoffed out loud; hopefully she'd develop a better sense of friendship in Dakota.

With that thought she looked out the window to view the battle. Unfortunately, the fight was over. She could see Static stopping on his disc to have a brief conversation with the press. She grinned, and couldn't help but wonder how that whole situation was going to play out. Static did seem to have an alpha male complex, she shrugged and ended her thinking as her father finally pulled off an exit. He didn't drive far before hitting a gas station. A smile spread across Ellie's face and she practically jumped out of the car, smiling even wider as she heard her brother's whiny protest. She traveled around the car and stood up on her toes to peck her father's cheek gratefully as he pumped the gas. Then she seated herself in the driver's seat, she looked over and gave her brother a grin. Pete shook his head and unbuckled his seatbelt.

"I'm sitting in the back, I think it'll better my chances of surviving the crash." He mumbled and stepped over the tiny space between the driver and passengers seat and positioned himself in the backseat.

"Do what you want Pete but I still think the collateral damage will get you." Ellie grinned.

"That's not funny." Peter said with his arms crossed.

"Oh my god I was just kidding, don't be so sensitive." Ellie said in a mocking voice, throwing his own words back at him.

"You're so mature." He stated sarcastically. There was a muffled sound from Malcolm as he finished gassing up the car. He walked around the car and took his seat.

"Guys, I grabbed some aspirin that I'm fortunate enough to have found in this humble gas station. But until it kicks in, I want all sibling bickering to cease." Malcolm announced.

"Got it, dad." Ellie said and stepped on the gas the moment Malcolm's door closed. The engine revved as she peeled out of the gas station parking lot. The GPS that sat on the dashboard informed her to turn left in an electronically altered voice. She took a sharp turn and both men jerked against their seatbelt while Ellie just gripped the steering wheel enthusiastically. This was a relief from being cooped up in a car her entire Saturday. It wasn't the freedom she got when she ran, it wasn't the feelings of wind and power rushing through her body and it wasn't what she needed. But it was a start. Her foot pressed down harder on the pedal as she journeyed up the abandon street. A car beeped, as she cut him off.

"That red lollipop thing on the side of the road does not mean GO, Eleanor!" Pete shouted from the back seat.

"Thanks for that useful information, Peter. I'll keep that in mind." Ellie replied casually.

"El, watch the speed limit." Malcolm ordered sharply.

"I'm keeping the needle off the eight… paranoid." she scoffed.

"Dad, can't I drive?" Pete pleaded, "She's drives like a psycho. In fact, the only person who's more psychotic than her is the dude who gave her a learner's permit to begin with!"

"I don't think you can talk about my driving, at least I manage to keep my eyes on the road, Mr. Text and Drive," Ellie snapped.

"Do I really have to repeat myself like for the third time today?" Malcolm interrupted. Pete scoffed and looked out the window. Malcolm looked out his window as well as they passed a building that caught his attention.

"Freeman Community Center." He read the sign out loud, "That place looks nice." He commented.

"It's not going to look so nice when Ellie crashes and burns right in front of it." Pete mumbled. Malcolm sighed as he realized Pete was not going to shut up any time soon. He placed his large hand on his daughter's pale bony fingers that clutched around the steering wheel.

"Eleanor, slow it down a tad, will ya sweet pea?" Malcolm pleaded. Ellie looked over at her dad and smiled as she let the speed fall back to an even 50 miles per hour. She wasn't driving long before the GPS informed her, that they should be arriving to their destination. Ellie looked up as she pulled into the driveway. She was viewing her new home for the first time. It was a brick apartment, and she smiled as she noticed ivy climbing down the front of it. She had a thing for ivy. She also couldn't help but realize that it was noticeably bigger than their last apartment.

"Wow dad, those scientists must really want you back. Look at this place." Pete stated exactly what Ellie was thinking. The family of three emptied the car and strolled up the walkway to open the door. Malcolm quickly found the new key to the house and opened up the door. They all stepped in and their footsteps echoed against the walls of the empty home.

"Pete, your room is to the right of the kitchen. And El, your room is upstairs last door on the left." Malcolm explained. Both teens separated to go check out their new living space. Ellie sped up the stairs and opened the door to her room.

It was spacious, Ellie liked that. There was also a lock on the door, Ellie liked that as well. The room was private, and farther away from her dad and brother. She loved Malcolm and Pete, but she was a teenage girl, and there were times when she needed to be alone. She took a seat on the ground and leaned against the wall. Her lips rolled in with distaste as she surveyed the walls and carpet of her room. They were both a cream color, and Ellie didn't like that.

"Looks like an asylum in here." She mumbled to herself. She would have to have to paint the walls a more vibrant color. Perhaps orange or neon green. While she considered this she jumped to her feet and skipped over to the closet and opened that up. That was spacious as well. Her fingers fell to her chin. Her father hadn't mentioned what a big apartment this was. She then strolled over to the window to see if Pete and Malcolm had started to unload boxes from the car. Ellie stood on her toes only to see a red haired woman and a blond teenage boy walking up the driveway. She tilted her head curiously and sped for the door.

Malcolm had just put his hand on the door knob when his daughter appeared out of no where right next to him. He jumped in shock and then let out an aggravated sigh. Ellie grinned.

"Don't do that." Malcolm said defensively, Ellie just let out a giggle.

"Sorry daddy," she said with a smile that revealed two rows of white teeth, "Who'd you invite over? Do we have friends?" she asked. Malcolm looked through the small hole in the door.

"Judging from the baked pastry in her hand, I'd say she's a neighbor." Malcolm said.

"Is she cute? Do you have A-Game on?" Ellie grinned and playfully punched her fathers arm.

"Judging from the gold band on her right finger, I'd say no." he responded. Ellie snapped her fingers in defeat.

"Bummer… well let them in anyway, they have a pastry." Ellie reasoned. He slid the deadbolt across and opened up the door as Maggie and Richie Foley stepped on their porch. Friendly glances were exchanged and Maggie smiled politely.

"Hi, I'm Maggie Foley," she held out a hand and Malcolm took it, when they released she motioned to Richie, "And this is my son Richard. We live right across the street and we thought we'd come on over and welcome you to the neighborhood." She held out the baked good in her hand.

"That's very sweet of you, thank you." Malcolm took the dish, "I'm Malcolm Covelli, the creature behind me is my daughter Eleanor." He said, Ellie rested her arms on his shoulder.

"It's nice to meet you." Maggie greeted.

"Likewise, do you want to come in for some coffee? It's the first thing I plugged in." Malcolm offered.

"That sounds lovely." Maggie nodded and Malcolm lead her to the kitchen, leaving the teenagers alone. Ellie leaned against the stair railing.

"So… Richard, huh?" she broke the ice with a shrug. Richie grinned and let out a low laugh, his hand touched his ear at the embarrassing sound of his first name.

"No one calls me Richard, so you can call me Richie." He explained.

"Yeah, well no one calls me Eleanor either, so you can call me Ellie." She countered. Ellie couldn't help but realize that they both had similar features, only Richie had darker tones than her. While Richie had honey blond hair, Ellie's was more of a platinum blond, and she had dyed it dark brown underneath. And Richie's eyes were an ocean blue while Ellie's were pale. They both had equally pale skin and thin faces. The two teens stood looking around the room awkwardly, until blue challenged blue and they made eye contact. Richie decided to strike up a conversation.

"So… are you going to go to Dakota Union High?" Richie asked.

"Uh yeah, I'm starting Monday." Ellie said.

"I go there too, what grade?"

"Tenth."

"Wow… me too, what are the chances?" Richie shrugged. Ellie smiled, she didn't believe in chance. As corny as it sounded, she strongly believed that everything happened for a reason. And as she looked into his sea-blue eyes she felt a very powerful connection with the boy. He was warm and almost innocent, almost waiting for something to come and shake up his entire world. And it just so happened that Ellie Covelli was up for that challenge. Ellie stood on her toes.

"Well, do you wanna go and grab a piece of pie?" Ellie invited her new friend to the kitchen

"Thanks but I'm pretty stuffed, my mom's been on a baking binge. The church bake sale is tomorrow, and I'm her lab rat for new recipes… can't say I'm complaining." Richie patted his stomach. Ellie laughed.

"Wow, I'm jealous, the best my dad can do with a stove is make some over cooked macaroni and cheese," Ellie said impressively. Richie let out a small laugh.

"Well I'm no better… so where'd you move from?" Richie asked.

"A beautiful place, where scum covers every inch of walking space…" Ellie sighed dramatically.

"Oh you lived in Washington D.C.?" Richie asked. Ellie laughed.

"Very close… but… New York." She said. Peter entered the room with a piece of pie on a small plate. He waved to fingers in acknowledgement to the blond who had barely left the doorway.

"So you're the new neighbor's son… Richie, right? I'm Pete." He extended a hand which Richie shook half heartedly.

"Nice to meet you." Richie nodded. Pete nodded as he went to pass Ellie, he leaned over right by her ear.

"Don't flirt with the neighbor, we're not moving anytime soon." Pete warned in a tone so low Ellie was thankful Richie didn't over hear. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm talking Pete… get outta here." She pushed him playfully. Margaret walked in holding a steaming Styrofoam cup.

"Thank you for the coffee Malcolm, and it was nice to meet you both," Margaret smiled towards Ellie and Pete, "We've gotta get going, I want to finish dinner before my husband gets home and Richie has plans with his friend."

"The door's always open." Malcolm said, "You guys will be at the top of the list if we have a house warming party."

"We'll be sure to attend… bye now." Margaret waved as she exited. Richie nodded and waved as well.

"See you around." Ellie grinned.

"Yeah, you know, I can introduce you to some people at school if you want. Not everyone's so friendly, it can be intimidating meeting people on your own." Richie offered. Ellie smiled revealing to rows of white teeth.

"That's sweet of you, I'll have to take you up on that." She said.

"I'll catch you around school then." He responded, and then closed the door behind him as he headed down the stone steps.

"Oh you're so sweet, I'll take you up on that." Peter mocked in a high squeaky voice.

"You're just jealous because I made a friend." Ellie teased, she went to go upstairs, but Malcolm quickly spoke up.

"El, hang back a moment, there's something I wanna talk to you about." Her father instructed. Ellie looked over suspiciously but obeyed and sat down on the bottom stair. Pete left the room and went to go explore the upstairs.

"What's on your mind padre?" Ellie asked. Malcolm paced nervously looking for the right way to word his thoughts.

"Well I've been thinking. Remember that community center we passed?" Malcolm asked, his daughter gave a small nod and he continued, "Well, moving is very stressful, it's one of five leading causes for depression in teenagers. Maybe you and Pete could go down there and have a talk with one of the counselors." He finished.

"What?" Ellie crossed her arms defensively, "I don't need a shrink!" He held up his hands, knowing what his daughter's reaction would be before he even told her. He prepared his speech.

"El, don't be such a caveman. Times have changed, a lot of people get counseling. I worry about you; you never talk about your problems, well at least not to me." Malcolm said with a gloomy sigh. Her face dropped into a guilty expression.

"Aw dad, don't make me feel bad. I just don't want to worry you. You have enough on your mind without listening to me complain about life's little glitches." She said.

"No matter how much is on my mind, my kids are always first." He stated, "Will you please talk to a counselor? I know it's your nature to run, but I want you to stop and face your problems head on for once." Ellie gave a loud annoyed sigh.

"This is just a one time deal, right? Just talk about how moving makes me feel and then leave… I'm not gonna be one of those people who has to run every plan of action by a shrink before I act, right?" she asked.

"I would like you to go weekly." Malcolm said, Ellie groaned, and he quickly added, "Maybe less, depending on the counselor's advice." Ellie put her head in her hands. She didn't want to go to her therapy but if it would cease her father's constant worrying she would have to deal with it.

"Okay dad." She said, "You have my complete and utter open mindedness. When do you want us to go?"

"Your appointments tomorrow." Malcolm informed her. Ellie gave him a look.

"How did you swing that?"

"I made the call while you were checking out your room." He admitted.

"And if I had said no?"

"Who are you kidding?" Malcolm chuckled and kissed the top of her head before exiting, "Like you would say no to me." Ellie sighed knowing that her father was right. He did a lot for her and she could never argue with his orders. Of course it was his responsibility to provide her with her basic needs, but she was so used to people letting her down that her father was the only person who offered her stability. She hated the way he worried for her. Ellie blinked as she looked around her new environment. She then decided to unload the boxes out of the car. What would be an all-day project for the two men, would only take her three minutes. She sped out letting the warm air rush against her, wondering if she'd ever be able to call this strange city traffic puzzle home.

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**Well this concludes chapter one :D**

**Note: I'm kinda hating myself, because I know that the fact Ellie and Richie are neighbors is just a beyond ridiculous cliché. I'm sorry for my lack of creativity in that department. There was also a little too much dialogue for my taste but what are you gonna do? Reviews are much appreciated kids. ;)**


	2. Crawling Towards the Sun

**Alright guys, Chapter Two is about to initiate… **

"**That the shadows kept me hidden. From the light that calls my name. All the creatures stood above me. Now I'm crawling towards the sun." –Crawling Towards The Sun, The Hush Sound.**

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Virgil sat back at the desk impatiently; he had to admit he was a little peeved. When ever his father was short handed around the center, he was automatically forced to help. And he didn't mind it most the time; it was nice to help people as Virgil Hawkins, but he had already been busy. He had plans to study with Daisy, go to the comic store with Richie, and he was going to end the day with some patrolling time as Static. But no, the second his father's assistant called in sick, Virgil was expected to drop everything he was doing to help. 'Meanwhile Sharon is doing nothing today but sitting around at home chatting up her precious Adam over the phone.' He thought bitterly. As he began to think of ways to convince Richie to come and keep him company, the front door opened. Pete and Ellie stepped in. Pete seemed very relaxed as he took a seat on a small blue chair casually. Virgil looked over and saw them have a small little discussion that he couldn't hear. Ellie was tense as she looked around at the place awkwardly; it was painfully obvious she had never set foot in a place like the community center before. She jammed her pale hands into her pockets and pulled out a pink piece of paper, then she caught sight of Virgil and strolled over to the desk.

"Welcome to the Freeman Community Center, I'm Virgil." He stated.

"Hiya Virgil, I'm Ellie. My brother and I are late for an appointment, but I think there's a mistake because we have separate times." She said. Virgil grabbed the big appointment book resting on the desk and used his fingers to look through the names.

"Eleanor and Peter Covelli?" he asked checking to see if he had found the correct appointment.

"That's us." Ellie said.

"I didn't know parents still named their kids Eleanor…" Virgil grinned, Ellie snorted.

"Trust me they don't, my dad's name is Malcolm Orville Covelli the fifth. He decided a long time ago to curse his children with names from the previous century." She explained, Virgil laughed. He checked back to the appointment book.

"Well, uh there doesn't seem to be a mistake. It's got you scheduled for 3, and then Peter scheduled for 3:45." He explained. Ellie's face fell.

"I have to talk to the dude alone?" she said with a sigh.

"I think so, you've got my dad as a counselor, and he usually works one on one." Virgil said catching Ellie's disappointment he added, "You're not used to this kind of stuff are you?"

"You mean talking about how hard life is with a random stranger? No, not really. I'm pretty sure that's something I've understood since I was two." She said.

"Well take it from his son; my dad definitely knows how to help people. He won't make you say anything you don't want to say." Virgil said with a smile. Ellie reflected it.

"Thanks, that makes me a feel a little bit better." She said, then tilted her head curiously, "What school do you go to?"

"Dakota Union High." He stated, Ellie grinned.

"Awesome, I start there tomorrow, maybe I'll catch you around." She said. Suddenly an idea came to Virgil.

"Maybe after your appointment I can convince my dad to let me off so I can show you around the school." He stated. Perhaps, he wouldn't have to spend his Sunday cooped up in the community center after all. Ellie's expression filled with a little excitement.

"Oh, that'd be great, I've been thinking about getting a dry run of my schedule so I don't get too lost tomorrow." She said, a purposely loud cough sounded from across the room, she turned her head to see her brother pointing at his watch with an eyebrow raised. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind Pete, he has a lack of subtlety." She said. Virgil gave a small chuckle.

"He's in the last room on the left." Virgil pointed out the hallway. Ellie nodded and began her journey to see Mr. Hawkins. She looked around the walls that were decorated with cheesy cut outs of children's hands on neon colored paper forming a rainbow. Motivational posters took up all the other empty space. She opened the last door and a kid with green hair styled into an obnoxious style, pushed pass Ellie. He grumbled an apology and kept moving. There were a bunch of desks in a row but she stopped as she got to an oak desk. There were a few framed pictures that caught her attention. There was one of Virgil wearing a cheesy smile and a teenage girl with pig tails who looked very annoyed. She picked up one framed photo off the desk and held it in her hands. It was a picture of Virgil, a blond boy and a large man holding a fish. She could only assume the large man was Virgil's father. A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped, almost dropping the photo. She whipped around and sure enough the man from the picture was surveying her.

"Sorry." She handed him the photo hoping he wouldn't be mad at her for disturbing it. Mr. Hawkins just gave her a small smile.

"It's quite alright; it's one of my favorite pictures. You must be Eleanor, I'm Robert Hawkins." He extended a hand and Ellie shook it.

"Oh, uh… you can call me Ellie." She said.

"Alright, why don't you sit down Ellie?" Mr. Hawkins motioned for her to take a seat. She quietly obeyed as he took a seat at his desk chair and put on his glasses as he read a small file, "So it says here, you just moved here from New York City." Ellie nodded, "How did you like New York?"

"Oh it was great… I really loved it there." She said.

"What exactly did you love about it?"

"Well… it was a very hectic city, very fast paced. I like fast paced things…"

"I see and how do you feel about Dakota so far?"

"It's a bit slower, but I think I can manage." She said. Mr. Hawkins looked up from the paper and brought all his attention on to her.

"How are you planning to _manage_?" he asked curiously. Ellie shrugged nervously.

"Well I don't know… I tend to get over stuff quickly." She said. Mr. Hawkins adjusted his glasses and folded his hands.

"Well there's a quite a difference between getting over something and actually managing your problems."

"There is?" Ellie questioned blankly.

"Managing your problems helps bring you closure. But when you ignore how you feel about something that only helps you suppress it." He explained. Ellie shifted uncomfortable and then remembered what Virgil had said.

"Can we uh… talk about something else… please?" she requested. Mr. Hawkins let out a sigh and nodded.

"Of course, you can talk about things when you're ready." He stated, "Why don't you tell me about your family?" Ellie nodded.

"My dad is a scientist, his name is Malcolm, and he's the one who set this all up. I have three older brothers. Charlie Dan lives in San Francisco and John is a junior at Harvard. My other brother Pete lives with me and my dad. You're uh… gonna talk to him next." She said sheepishly.

"I see, how do you and you're dad get along?" he asked. Ellie's face lightened.

"We get along great; he's always been there for me. He understands me better than anyone else. He's kind of like my dad and my best friend." She explained.

"So have you talked to him about moving?" Mr. Hawkins asked.

"No, no, no, it was uh… hard for him too, you know? He really liked where he was and he needs to worry about his own feelings. I don't wanna add mine on top of his, he'll only worry. I don't like to make him worry anymore than he already does." She said.

"Who else do you have to talk to?" Mr. Hawkins asked. Ellie paused, she rolled in her lips.

"Well I have friends… but uh… they have their own stuff to deal with, and I don't want to…" Ellie started but she was interrupted.

"Bother them?" Mr. Hawkins finished for her. Ellie nodded slowly, and he jotted down a note on the white piece of paper. She wished she could read what it said. 'Wow, I really hate being analyzed.' She realized.

"Can I ask you something?" he said. Ellie nodded, and he put down the pen and folded his hands again, "What kind of feminine influence do you have in your life?"

"Oh…" Ellie stopped for a moment completely taken aback. Her hand fell to her chin and she began to think of the first female in her life that came to mind, "I guess, I see my grandma and my aunts on holidays and stuff."

"Well, I meant on a daily basis." He said. Ellie began to think again.

"I had a friend in New York; she was kind of like a sister to me." She shrugged.

"Yes, but here in Dakota, do you have any feminine companions at all?" he asked, Ellie shook her head, Mr. Hawkins nodded, "I see, I'm only asking, because I couldn't help but notice you haven't mentioned your mother once." Ellie winced.

"She's… uh… not much of a factor." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, "She lives in Houston, so I don't talk to her often."

"When was the last time you did talk with her?" Mr. Hawkins asked.

"Seven years ago." Ellie stated.

"I see, so she doesn't really play any role at all in you or your brother's li…" he started.

"No, uh just me." Ellie said, "My brother's still talk to her and see her occasionally."

"Why is that?" Mr. Hawkins asked.

"Well she doesn't like me… so I just kind of removed myself from the picture, hoping she would call my brothers more often. And it worked… they talk to her monthly." She explained, he wrote down another note and Ellie shifted uncomfortably.

"I see, if you don't mind me asking, why don't you and your mother get along?" he asked. Ellie shrugged.

"You'd have to ask her, I said she doesn't like me, I never said the feeling was mutual." She explained, "If you don't mind, could we change the subject again… I don't like talking about my mom."

"Whatever you'd like Ellie… what do you want to talk about?" he asked. Ellie's mind blanked.

"Oh… uh… I uh… I don't know." She said, "I'm not good with talking about feelings and stuff. It's hard enough for me trying to keep an open mind about all this."

"I see… I take it that it wasn't your idea to come here today." He observed.

"Guilty as charged." Ellie looked up sheepishly, "My dad's idea, he doesn't think I convey my emotions enough, says I'm too closed off."

"I understand what he's talking about." Mr. Hawkins said, he glanced at his watch, "Well, it's almost time for your brother but I would like to talk to you again. I think we touched on a few issues in your life that you need to address. Would you like to make another appointment for next week?" he asked, Ellie sighed knowing that Malcolm would make her go anyway.

"Okay." She said.

"Great, same time next week." Mr. Hawkins nodded.

"See you then I guess…" Ellie stood up and went to turn but then remembered something, "Oh… uh I was talking to your son, Virgil. He mentioned showing me around Dakota Union High before I start tomorrow, but he mentioned he was hoping he could get off a little early..."

"Sure." Mr. Hawkins nodded taking a look around at the empty office, "It's slower than I expected anyway, just tell him he needs to be home in time for dinner."

"Thanks Mr. Hawkins, it was nice meeting you." She said.

"Likewise." He said as she left the room. Ellie stepped back out into the hallway, and ignored the decorations as she passed them again. Pete stood to his feet as soon as he caught sight of her. He grabbed her by the shoulders.

"So what's the diagnosis sis? Are you crazy? Are you just looking for attention? Are you a possible homicidal maniac? Are you just starved for…" he started dramatically.

"Hey Pete, I can save you a half an hour in there and diagnose you right now. Get off your lazy butt and go get a job. Better yet go to college and _then_ get a job." She crossed her arms. Virgil snorted from the desk and Pete shook his head.

"One-nothing, Ellie bean. But the night is still young." Pete stated as he walked by her.

"I'm not sticking around, so do whatever you want when you get out." She called after him. Ellie walked over to Virgil.

"If you're still feeling up to a tour, you're dad decided to spring you." She informed him. Virgil leapt from his chair.

"I'm free? Are you joking?" he questioned with disbelief.

"It would be very mean of me to joke about something like that." She stated.

"Well then I definitely owe you a tour." Virgil said and he grabbed his backpack from underneath the desk.

"Rad, are there any good places to eat around here? I'm starving." She asked. Virgil jumped over the desk and led her to the door.

"Sure, we'll pick up a couple of burgers and then we'll go down to the school. There's some book fair going on so it should be open." He explained.

"Sweet."

* * *

The two teenagers sat across from each other at Burger Fool as they finished their meal. Ellie took a long sip of her soda as Virgil used a napkin to wipe the grease from his fingers.

"So… what was it like living in New York?" Virgil asked. The two had gotten acquainted during the meal. They had talked about everything from their annoying siblings to their similar interests. Ellie was happy to have met two people that she could get along with.

"It was pretty great, I knew the streets so well, where to go, where to avoid and now I gotta worry about stumbling into a bad part of town." Ellie sighed.

"Well, I'd say avoid the graffiti infested area, but that would really limit your walking distance." Virgil said, Ellie laughed. There was a loud crash from outside. The whole restaurant seemed to jump up and rush to the window in anticipation. Ellie and Virgil were among them as they both sat up in their booth. Talon flew right by their window and Virgil got to his feet.

"Ellie, I'm sorry, I forgot… that… my friend needs me to tutor her… rain check?" Virgil asked. Ellie nodded anxiously not even appearing to hear him.

"Yeah, see you at school. I'll go call my dad for a ride," She said absentmindedly then rushed for the bathroom as Virgil rushed for the door. A habit that they had both grown to accustomed to.

Static was the first one on the fight, of course. Talon was high up in the air, almost crawling towards the sun. He chucked a zap cap at her and she spiraled down to Earth. Static quickly zoomed down and went to finish her, ending the battle quickly but Shiv attacked him from behind with a glowing purple blade.

"Sneak attack huh? That's rude…" Static announced matter o factly.

"Knocking Talon outta the sky for no good reason is just slightly more rude." Shiv raised an eyebrow and made another swipe at the superhero. Static jumped back on his disc and hovered up a few feet off the ground. As he prepared to send a dose of electricity right through Shiv, a yellow whirlwind surrounded the purple haired meta human. The whirlwind closed in tighter until it stopped. When Static's dizziness from watching it faded, he could clearly see Shiv thoroughly tied up. A girl stood above his disorientated form. She had blond hair that matched the yellow spandex hugging her tightly. The only color that wasn't loud and obnoxious was the plain black mask, which was just a little too similar to Static's for his taste, that covered half of her face.

"Watch your back!" she called. Static had been so thrown off by the presence of a new hero that he hadn't noticed Talon get back up. She lunged at him and just narrowly missed. The yellow clad superhero sped forward and tackled the feathered teenager. They rolled into a nearby alley and Static flew right behind them. But after another whirlwind of vibrant color, Talon was restricted by a rope as well.

"Thanks for warming them up for me, Sparky." The girl smiled as she stood to her feet. Static could tell he disliked her already.

"I had that handled, _Speedy_." Static retorted.

"Oh, it certainly seemed that way, sugar." she snickered. The two heroes stared at each other for a long moment before it dawned on Static.

"Hey, I know you…" Static realized, "You're Velocity… you have the same super power as The Flash, only he's cooler and more well known."

"And I know you. You're Static, you have the same super powers as a carpet." She reflected the smirk and crossed her arms.

"I thought New York was your turf." Static grumbled.

"Maybe I want a change of scenery, it would appear you can't handle Dakota all by yourself." She said.

"News flash, I was doing just fine without you. Shiv and Talon are Childs Play, I wouldn't be so proud of myself if I were you." He stated.

"I'm not here to fight with you Sparky; I'm here to fight bad guys." Velocity stated, "How about this? I patrol the east side, and you patrol the west, we can alternate every other day."

"How about this? You leave Dakota and go back to the NYC." Static suggested and turned around to start walking away. Velocity blocked his bath within a fraction of a second.

"Trust me, I'd love to do that. But I gotta stay close to home, daddy's orders. So you either take this deal or we just continue to fight each other instead of the scum that pollutes this city." Velocity raised an eyebrow, Static let out a frustrated sigh.

"Fine… it's a deal." He growled. Something told him this would be just as fun as sharing the streets with Rubber Band Man. A satisfied smirk danced across her face.

"I knew you'd see the errors of your ways."

"Don't push it." Static said as he hopped on to his disc and flew a feet off the ground, "You may be fast, but when I'm airborne I can get around Dakota a lot quicker than you."

"Take away that saucer and you're just as grounded as me, I can run circles around you." Velocity spat.

"Take away your speed and you're just a scrawny teenage girl." Static retorted and started to rise up higher.

"Take away your electricity and so are you!" Velocity called out after him.

* * *

**I know, know, again with the cliché's! What are the freaking chances that the two superheroes would meet without their masks on?! Whatever… they did, that's out of the way. So as you can see Ellie and Virgil are getting along just fine. Static and Velocity, however, are quite another matter ;)**

**So review and tell me what ya think sugar plum! **


	3. This Is Our Town

**Thanks for reviewing guys! I've gotten nothing but positive feedback, you guys are too sweet!**

**Chapter Three is about to commence, hope you like it sweet pea :)**

"**This is our town. This is who we're meant to be. And this is our town where our roots have grown so deep." –This Is Our Town, We The Kings**

* * *

"Eleanor Jean Covelli! Get down here, now!" Malcolm's powerful voice rang through the hallways of their new box filled home. Ellie could hear it loud and clear from her room upstairs even though he was calling her from the kitchen. She bit her lip, _'There's no way he could have found out about today already.' _Ellie thought nervously. Regardless she got to her feet and sped out of her room to the top of the stairs. She got on her knees and peeked through the stair railing, hoping to catch a glimpse of her father's expression. This would help her decide if she wanted to go into the kitchen or start heading for Mexico. Pete, who had also been upstairs, got down on his knees next to her.

"Why's dad middle naming you?" Pete asked.

"Not sure…" Ellie said undecided, she could only see an inch of the kitchen, and her father must have been sitting at the table, away from her sight.

"What shenanigans could you have possibly gotten into _already_?" Pete questioned.

"You'd be surprised," Ellie got to her feet and slowly started down the stairs awaiting her fate.

"You worry me, little sister." Pete sighed. The blond inched her way to the kitchen, she was moving painfully slow and she hated it. _'What am I worrying about? He can't have found out about this afternoon, he hasn't even left the house today! I'm stressing for nothing… he's probably mad because I forgot to rinse out my cereal bowl or something…' _Ellie convinced herself and she entered into the unpacked kitchen.

"What's up dad?" Ellie asked casually. Malcolm sat at the table with a mug of coffee in hand. He pointed to the tiny television set on the kitchen counter. A news report flashed on the screen, the headline at the bottom of the screen read, **"Velocity in Dakota?"**Ellie winced.

"What is this about?" Malcolm questioned with his arms crossed.

"The cable's up! I thought he wasn't coming until Tuesday…" Ellie observed meekly with a cheesy grin. Her father was un-phased. Ellie resorted to groveling and her tone and face changed as she began to plead, "I'm sorry dad! It was a… moment of weakness?" she tried to convince him.

"What are the rules to living here, oh sweet daughter of mine?" Malcolm asked. Ellie sighed.

"Velocity can't roam the streets until we've been living here for at least two months…"

"And why is that?" Malcolm asked.

"Because it will appear suspicious to the people around us, if a superhero from New York and a student from New York both appear in Dakota at the exact same time." Ellie recited dully.

"And now, I'll ask again," Malcolm pointed back to the television set, "What is this about?" he repeated.

"I'm sorry! I couldn't help it… it's just… my nature!" Ellie defended.

"El! We can't afford slip up's like this! I think two months is _still _suspicious, I wanted to go for a year until Velocity shows up! But I couldn't do that to you! Two months is a generous deal…"

"Why can't I just run to New York City and be back before curfew every night? It'd only take me like four minutes to run there and back!"

"I don't like the idea of you being so far away by yourself. What happens if you get hurt in the city? What happens if you break your ankle and you can't run back so you're stranded there! What happens if some bozo robber hits you over the head? I don't have super speed Ellie; I can't run and be there right away. You have to stay close…" Malcolm insisted.

"I know… you're right… but I can't just sit at home." Ellie sunk into the chair next to him and cradled her head. Malcolm lifted her chin, hating to see his daughter in such despair.

"We agreed that you could still run around without the mask… just as long as you're discrete and you don't go around trying to fight crime." He reminded her.

"But I wanna help people…" Ellie pouted.

"I know you do… but you can't help people, when everyone knows who you are."

"Rubber Band Man does it!"

"I'm not Rubber Band Man's father…" Malcolm paused and pondered how strange that last statement sounded, he shook it off, "We decided a long time ago, to keep your identity a secret, why are you having doubts now?"

"I know! And I don't really have doubts… but dad, I'm desperate! I screwed up, I know, but the cat's outta the bag, can't I just continue? No one's gonna piece it together." Ellie pleaded.

"Someone _could_ piece it together…" Malcolm stated, the blue eyes kept their plea regardless, he sighed in defeat, "Do what you want."

"You're mad…" Ellie said. Malcolm rolled his eyes.

"No, I'm not. Make something good for dinner tonight and we'll call it even." Malcolm offered.

"Steak and sweet potato pie?" Ellie offered.

"I concur, young Eleanor." Malcolm ruffled her blond hair and stood up from his chair. Ellie sighed, and decided to start with dinner. The kitchen was Ellie's domain. Her father was a scientist, one of the best, but he was too precise for cooking. It took him an hour to make sure the milk was exactly one cup. Peter didn't have the attention span for cooking, he would be in the middle of boiling pasta then he would walk away and play video games for 45 minutes before remembering there was something on the stove. So Ellie was the cook of her family, and she was fairly decent at it, her only problem was patience. She couldn't wait for the food to cook through all the way. But over the years she had grown to master the art of waiting for _meat_ to cook thoroughly after her brother's horrid week of food poisoning. So she prepped for the pity meal she was supposed to cook to alleviate her guilt.

* * *

"Ellie… did you know that you my favorite sister?" Peter announced as his spoon clattered against his empty bowl. Ellie grinned, her famous sweet potato pie was the weakness for the men in her family. Her father had taken his meal on the road, the research lab had called him last minute and told him that they needed him to come review the lab before he started in the morning. So Ellie and Peter sat at the table together finishing up their meals.

"Well considering the fact John is my only competition that doesn't say much." Ellie smirked. Peter let out an amused laugh.

"I actually got a call from Jonathan this afternoon, he was talking my ear off, he's confused if Melissa is the right girl for him, he's not sure if he can see them having a future together…" Peter mocked in an overly feminine voice.

"God someone needs to kick him in the ovaries, he's in college! Why's he thinking about settling down?" Ellie said.

"Because Johnny's all work and no play… and it really does make him a dull boy." Her brother responded as he took the last bite of his steak.

"Like really, what kinda guy _wants_ to have a wife, kids, and picket fence by the time he turns 24? He should be enjoying the parties and junk." She asked.

"I don't know…I'll never understand that guy." Peter said from the sink as he rinsed off his plate. He grabbed the remote and turned the small television set on. The news was still on and Velocity was _still_ the headline. Peter rolled his eyes and changed the channel to a violent alien movie on Sci-Fi.

"You know, Ellie, you _should_ be grounded." Peter said.

"Yeah? And you _should_ be in college." Ellie retorted.

"I mean, is it really so hard to lay low for a little while?" Peter asked.

"Yes." She said simply as she scraped the remnants of her plate into the garbage disposal, "Is it so hard for you to get motivated and… work, for once?" The phone rang interrupting their conversation. Peter gave her a glare and answered it.

"Hello?... hey mom." Pete answered. Ellie sighed and exited the kitchen giving Peter his privacy while talking to their mother. And also sometimes Peter liked to attempt to get the two talking. Ellie always managed to get out of it though, either that or her mother would find something to do. As Ellie started to head for her bedroom, she heard a knock at the door. Malcolm had forgotten his wallet on the kitchen counter, so he had probably come back to retrieve it.

"Halt trespasser, state your name!" She ordered.

"Richie Foley and Virgil Hawkins?" the blond said through the door. Ellie tilted her head in curiosity as she unlocked the door and opened. The two teenage boys stood on the small porch wearing friendly smiles.

"Hi…" Ellie returned the friendly smile, "You two know each other?"

"You kidding? Richie's my main man!" Virgil said, "I mentioned how I felt bad about blowing you off and Richie told me you lived right across the street from him."

"It's okay… you don't have to feel bad." Ellie assured him, "Hey, do you guys want something to drink or maybe some sweet potato pie?" she offered.

"Um… yeah, I could go for something to drink." Virgil said. She motioned for them to follow her into the kitchen. Peter was still on the phone so he didn't say hello to the new guests, he only waved briefly. Virgil and Richie took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Orange juice, strawberry milk or water?" Ellie called.

"Just water please." Virgil requested.

"You got it." Ellie poured some water into a pink glass and handed it over to her new friend. She sat up on the counter and looked over at her brother for a moment wondering if the three should switch rooms so they didn't disturb his conversation. But as soon as Pete caught Ellie looking at him he shifted his conversation.

"Hey Ma, do you wanna talk to Ellie?" Peter asked. Ellie motioned to her guests and shook her head wordlessly, but it turned out she didn't have to when she heard him say, "Oh… it's okay that you're busy… I love you too… bye." There was a loud click as Peter hung up the phone.

"Pete, you met Virgil at the community center right? And you know our neighbor Richie." Ellie reminded him.

"Yeah, nice seeing you guys, what's going on?" Peter asked.

"Oh you know, just dropped by." Richie shrugged.

"Okay then. Well, you kids have fun; I'm going to go watch a Spike Lee movie." Peter announced and left the room. Ellie shook her head and turned back to the two boys sitting at the kitchen table.

"You know I have my schedule from when my dad registered me on Friday, maybe I have some classes with you guys." Ellie said grabbing the pink piece of paper from the basket of accumulated important documents her father kept on the kitchen counter. Virgil and Richie looked over the schedule and both made faces like they were in pain.

"Oh man… period one." Richie said.

"You got Goff…" Virgil said sympathetically.

"Who's Goff?" Ellie asked now with concern laced in her voice.

"Only the worst geometry teacher the demonic educational establishment has ever hired." Virgil shook his head.

"He's horribly strict." Richie agreed.

"Well math is one of my strengths… I mean… shouldn't that play a factor…?" Ellie said weakly, but Virgil only gave her a pitiful look.

"Our good friend Daisy has him… she has a B-minus."

"That's not too bad."

"She maintains a 4.0 GPA, and has an A or A-plus in every other class."

"Oh wonderful…" Ellie sighed, "Is there any good news on my schedule?"

"You have lunch with me and Richie that alleviates the new kid pain of where to sit." Virgil announced, "And you have biology with me too."

"You've got U.S. History and English with me." Richie announced.

"Awesome! I have _friends_ in my _classes_!" Ellie stated excitedly, "I don't have to be all awkward and alone!"

"Well you're still awkward and alone in gym, Spanish, and Art." Richie reminded her. Ellie's smile disappeared from her face and then Richie automatically changed tactics and quickly said, "I mean… I'm sure you'll make friends fast!"

"I'm sure that's what you meant…" Ellie rolled her eyes.

"Just wait until you meet Daisy and Frieda, if anyone's welcoming and intimidating at the same time it's them." Virgil grinned, putting down the schedule, "It's too bad you couldn't check out the school."

"Who says we can't?" Ellie grinned mischievously as a mysterious plot began to fill her vast and notorious mind. Richie was clueless to the girl's forming master plan.

"Well, its nine o clock, the school's closed." Richie said.

"How hard could it be to sneak in?" Ellie suggested, "I mean just to get a look around, it's not like we're vandalizing anything."

"Breaking and entering with the new girl?" Richie pondered for a moment, "I'm game!"

"Sweet! Virgil?" Ellie questioned. Virgil also thought about the concept before finally nodding.

"Sure…why not? This is our town! We should be able to go to school on a Sunday if we really want to!" Virgil said, only after thinking about how strange that statement sounded.

"Awesome, let's go! Lead the way, guys!" Ellie said allowing herself to be guided from her new home into the mysterious dark city by her two new friends.

* * *

**This concludes Chapter Three, next chapter Static and Velocity are going to have another encounter. And I'm hoping to get a little bit more into the actual plot of the story. **

**And don't be shy; tell me what you think so far! ;)**


	4. Rocket

**IT'S SUMMERRRRRRRRRRRRR! My last exams were yesterday! I'm now officially a senior and I have celebrated by finishing this chapter. So enjoy ;)**

"**I won't hesitate or I'll crash and burn and fade. Fly away with me, you've got just what I need, will you be my rocket?" –Rocket, Mae**

* * *

"Where to next?" Ellie asked, as they made the fourth turn down a very curvy back road that lead to Dakota Union High School.

"It's up… this last hill…" Richie panted from the exertion. Even Virgil was breaking a sweat, ever since he had become Static he'd grown very accustomed to just flying across the city on his saucer. A walk all the way across Dakota used to be cake for him. He couldn't help but feel jealousy at Ellie, the walk was certainly cake for her! She was skipping ahead of them and giggling at their painful attempts to keep up. Often throwing jabs like, 'Come on, we don't want to be out ALL night' or 'Hurry it up, slow pokes'. She made it to the top of the hill before sitting down criss-crossed and waiting for the two boys to catch up.

"Well she's… just… full of energy… isn't she?" Virgil said in between breaths.

"Yeah… she doesn't let up… I don't think she's lost her breath even once." Richie agreed. They finally both let out a long gasp as they reached the top of the hill and collapsed next to Ellie. She laughed as they made no attempt to get back up.

"You kids and your automobiles… they make you lazy." Ellie grinned and then added, "Maybe you guys should go out for Cross Country with me."

"Yeah, I'll have to think about that…" Virgil said sarcastically. Ellie grabbed his hand and pulled him up to his feet.

"Up ya go," she stated, and then bent back down to force Richie to stand as well, "We just need to go down this lil' ol' hill," she said motioning to the steep slope ascending into abysmal darkness cast by the shadows of the night sky, "and then we're there!" she decreed happily and leaped forward. Virgil checked his watch before ending his break.

"Well its 11:30, I _really_ hope my pop's hasn't noticed my absence." Virgil sighed as he began to follow Ellie down the sidewalk. Richie nodded in agreement at Virgil's statement. The two managed to keep up at Ellie's pace since they were now going downhill and gravity was working with them. When they reached the bottom Virgil excitedly took the lead.

"So let me be the first to introduce you to Dakota Union Hi…" Virgil froze as he turned around to see the wild scene behind him. The school parking lot was littered with cars, loud music, plastic cups, and over a hundred buzzed teenagers. A black truck had a keg resting on its flat bed, where a bunch of kids had gathered. The group of three remained undetected from the party, and Virgil turned back around. "I swear to you, school is never this… entertaining."

"Yeah, I'm used to this kind of vandalism on school property. I'm from New York, remember?" Ellie could recall countless times when she had come to school and seen it TP'd or covered in graffiti. "But, I gotta say I don't think a Sunday Tour is the best idea right now." she admitted.

"Agreed." Richie nodded and they began to retreat. A loud girlish scream erupted from not too far away from them, making them all turn around once more. It was easy to detect the source. Frieda had been the one who screamed, Francis Stone had been the cause. His strong hand gripped her skinny forearm and he violently tossed her to the ground.

"Frieda!" Virgil yelled and ran forward. Richie and Ellie were right behind him as he quickly pulled the brunette to her feet.

"You still gonna go to the cops?" Hotstreak questioned.

"Yes!" Frieda stated angrily as she placed her hands on her hips. Virgil sighed; he should have known Frieda's feisty nature would get her in to trouble here.

"Frieda! Don't make him mad!" Virgil growled under his breath, making sure Hotstreak couldn't hear him, "I'll make sure it gets taken care of." But Hotstreak was still angry at Frieda's first attempt to get the police to break up their party, and the fact his least favorite person in the world had just shown up was doing nothing good for his temper.

"Well if it isn't the goody two shoe squad?" Hotstreak questioned his hand ignited into flames, "Goren, Hawkins, Foley and… well I don't believe I know you." Hotstreak closed his fiery hand and approached Ellie his eyes roamed over her clothes, "Name's Hotstreak. You here to check out the party babe?"

"Uh… no." Ellie shook her head as she backed up slightly.

"Wanna dance?" Hotstreak persisted only moving closer to her. Ellie switched tactics and took the offense.

"Not on your life, Hotshot." Ellie stated, sort of surprised at herself. She tried to stay out of trouble when she was out of costume. After all only Velocity was immune to Malcolm's authority, anything that Ellie did, such as detentions or fights, was enough to deserve retribution. Hotstreak flared up again, angry at being denied. His left hand, which also occupied a red plastic cup, closed into a fist and the pressure made beer spill over the front of Ellie's shirt.

"It's Hotstreak!" he corrected furiously his eyes blazing.

"Let's get out of here." Richie suggested as he grabbed Ellie before Hotstreak could do anymore damage. Virgil had to use all his strength to pull Frieda away. Hotstreak took a menacing step forward but was then distracted as another keg was brought out. When they were out of eyeshot of the party Frieda stamped her foot angrily.

"OH! He makes me SO mad! Why do they have to go out of the way to make school even more unpleasant?!" Frieda fumed.

"Some welcome that was." Ellie said while tugging at her pastel blouse repeatedly to try and air dry her shirt.

"I'm sorry Ellie, let's start heading back…" Virgil started to stay before a loud crash erupted in the direction of the school. Virgil craned his neck to see Shiv and Talon terrorizing the public for the second time that Sunday, but this time they were accompanied by Ebon. Richie and Ellie both looked over as well, when Virgil caught Richie's eye and began to fake stomach pains.

"OHHHHWWWIEEEE!" Virgil bellowed incoherently, "I'm gonna… I gotta… bathroom!" he shouted and ran off.

"Virgil!" Frieda called after him. Ellie apprehensively backed away from Frieda and Richie.

"Hey Richie, why don't you wait for Virgil? I'm just going to try and find a payphone to see if I can convince my dad to pick us all up." Ellie sputtered out and began a soft jog in the opposite direction.

"Yeah… I'm going to see what the action is about, see you tomorrow Frieda." Richie motioned back in the direction of the school and he also ran off leaving Frieda alone in the middle of the street. The brunette's hands moved to her hips in a confused manner as if realizing something bigger was going over her head.

"Has everyone lost their…" she started before Static zoomed over her head on his low flying disc, "…minds?" she finished with a squeak, but before she could let out a sigh a flash of yellow almost blew her right off her feet. She quickly regained her balance and let out a low grumble, "I hate this city."

Static kept to the shadows and landed next to where Richie was hiding in the bushes. The two teenage boys stayed low and surveyed the damage the meta-breed was now causing. Most of the kids, who were wanna-be punks, had fled the crime scene at the sight of the intimidating shadow. But the most reputable mischief makers stayed to prove the worthiness to the criminals. "How the hell did Ebon escape from maximum lockdown?" Static questioned irritated. Richie shrugged.

"Go after Ebon first, he's the most dangerous. You'll burn off most your energy but at least he'll be out of the way. Then go after Shiv and Talon." Richie whispered.

"Is that the best plan of action ya got Blondie?" Velocity questioned from behind them making them both jump. Static's eyes narrowed angrily.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Static growled.

"Your plan's got a few flaws, sugar," Velocity ignored the electric hero's protest and proceeded to correct Richie, "If he goes after Ebon first it will leave him feeling pretty drained, so while he half-heartedly fights Shiv and Talon, Ebon slowly regains his strength and manages to escape before the cops arrive. And not to mention the fact Hotstreak isn't even added in as a factor."

"For someone who's only been here a day you're quite informed." Richie observed.

"I was filled in by some sources." Velocity stated vaguely, she flipped her hair and gave Richie a smile, "Dare I suggest an alternative plan?"

"Be my guest." Richie rolled his eyes.

"It's pretty simple… you focus everything on Ebon, I'll take care of everyone else." She offered, Static crossed his arms annoyed at her over confidence… and that said A LOT coming from him.

"Yeah right… you'd just make a muck of everything and then I'd have to clean it up. I don't need a sidekick, so why don't you take that super speed and head back to New York?" Static stated.

"Alright, well… that's the plan I'm executing. I guess you don't have to follow it, but if you don't want to totally fail then go take on Ebon." Velocity remarked, she turned back to Richie, "And you should get home cupcake, this is a dangerous place for people without powers." She winked and clicked her tongue as she mimicked a gun with her fingers before speeding off right into the middle of the school parking lot. She ran extra fast and used one foot to spring herself off a brick wall. She flew through the air like a rocket and high enough into the air so she could grab on to Talon's legs. Talon attempted to try and sustain the additional weight by flapping her wings as hard as she could. But the effort was useless and she went sailing down to the ground, she groaned and strained to get back up. Talon had taken most of the fall, so Velocity was quick to get back up on her feet. She hit Shiv with enough speed and force to send him flailing into an open dumpster. She quickly ran over and slammed the lid shut. But she jumped in surprise as a purple ray of electricity molded itself around the metal twisting it around and holding the lid tightly in place. Static gave her a small amused smirk at her mini panic attack. Velocity rolled her eyes, she wouldn't be startled again. But she quickly contradicted that thought as a fireball whizzed right passed her ear and she let out a small gasp realizing she had forgotten Hotstreak.

Static was having his own problems. The parking lot was dark; the school had never paid for the lights to be fixed after some punks had ruined them. The headlights from everyone's cars had brightened the place for the party, but now everyone was gone. And it was almost abysmal. Not to mention the fact fighting Ebon in the dark was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. Static had his hands braced with glowing electricity with a creepy feeling crawling up his neck. He spun around as he heard the evil cackle from the shadow echo all around him. He felt uneasy like the shadow was circling him. Static ducked as Hotstreak's collateral damage was sent his way. He even surprised himself by wondering if Velocity was doing okay.

Velocity was NOT okay. Hotstreak had started a new tactic in their fight. It drained up most of his energy but he melted the asphalt all around him so Velocity couldn't get a running start. She slipped on the gooey substance every time she attempted to run. She couldn't win a hand to hand fight with him; he was a lot stronger than her.

"What's the matter Speedy? Can't take the heat?" Hotstreak questioned as Velocity came to a frustrated stop right outside his circle of melted substance.

"You're the one too afraid to face me on even terms Hotshot." Velocity grinned, knowing if she could get him enraged enough he'd leave his protective circle. He did indeed flare up, his hands ignited in flames as he shot them out at Velocity.

"It's **Hotstreak**!" he stated angrily for the second time that night. Velocity easily ducked the blaze and sped around the outside of the circle. Hotstreak desperately tried to keep his eyes on the yellow figure, eager to hit her with the flames.

"Did I say Hotshot? I meant Burnout." Velocity taunted from behind him. Hotstreak whipped around and chucked a fireball but she was gone before it had a chance to hit.

"Stay STILL you little…" Hotstreak growled.

"What's the matter? Is the baby afraid to leave his crib?" Velocity said in a singsong voice.

"SHUT UP!" Hotstreak sent another fireball sailing right past her. Velocity was starting to get irritated, she thought it'd be easier to separate him from his protection (A/N: that's what she said.) but he was stubbornly clinging to his plan. She hoped Static was doing better than she was.

Static was just as bad as Velocity. Ebon wasn't fighting like he usually did. Usually he'd taunt, but instead he kept silent so Static couldn't find him and he kept getting in cheap shots. He had even managed to knock Static off his disc. _'Why can't the city pay for the stupid parking lot lights to be fixed?' _Static thought miserably. Then the idea hit him. Static looked all around at the street lights surrounding the parking lot. He sent a wave of electricity through each one of them, they shined ten times brighter then they ever had before. Every inch of the entire parking lot was illuminated. It was TOO bright. Ebon hissed in pain at the amount of light. And even Hotstreak and Velocity both had to pause and shield their faces from the light as well. And of course, since the situation had been handled and this is America, the sirens from the cop cars sounded and they finally showed up. Velocity turned her head and Hotstreak finally launched a ball of fire that successfully hit her square in the stomach. She fell on her back and Hotstreak ran in the opposite direction away from the cops. Static turned his head at the sight of the yellow clad hero crumpled on the ground. Ebon took the moment to slither away into the shadows and escape the authorities as well. Static sighed in defeat when he turned back to find his culprit missing. He sighed in defeat and stood over Velocity extending his hand. She looked up weakly and groaned.

"Please tell me you don't have a buzzer on your hand and this some sort of weak prank." She said. Static rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Hotstreak didn't hurt you too bad, did he?" Static asked. Velocity tilted her head and looked at him with a smile on her face.

"Are you concerned for lil ol' me?" she asked.

"Just wondering if I need to call an ambulance for my favorite rookie." Static said. Velocity's lips thinned and the smile turned into a smirk.

"It's nothing I can't handle." Velocity stated with a shrug and walked away, she paused and turned around, "and just for the record, I've been at this longer than you."

"And yet you're still the rookie!" Static called after her as she sped off. It was unlike Velocity to let someone else have the last jeer, but she hated to admit she was concerned about the burn given to her by Hotstreak. She ran into the small bathroom in the McDonalds she had changed in. She was lucky to see no one had taken her backpack that she had carefully tucked away in a corner. She soaked some paper towels in cold water and pressed it against her stomach. She applied pressure and changed into her street clothes. Then she ran back for the street corner where she had split up from Richie and Virgil. She caught sight of Richie sitting on the corner impatiently tapping his foot. Ellie slowed her pace to a normal jog. She had to admit, her curiosity was building when it came to the blond boy. Why had he been talking to Static about a game plan? Were they partners? How did he fit into everything? They were all questions she wanted answers to. But to get the answers, she'd have to get closer to him. So she took a seat next to him.

"Did you get a hold of him?" Richie asked.

"Get a hold of who?" Ellie questioned.

"Your dad…" he reminded her.

"Oh! My dad! Um no… I mean, I tried… he didn't answer." She lied. Richie looked over curiously at her suspicious behavior, but Virgil ended up being the subject change as he ran on over.

"Man… that was some bad chicken! Sharon's cooking has hit an all time low." Virgil stated as he checked his watch, "We better get going home."

"Yeah, we're going to have to catch a bus, come on." Richie stated and the three headed for the closest bus stop.

* * *

Ellie entered the foyer of her home and tossed the backpack to the floor. She looked up at the clock, which read 2:30. She groaned and hoped her father hadn't decided to wait up for her. She groaned again when she that the kitchen light was indeed on. She walked in and relaxed when she realized it was only Peter. He was wearing a black T-shirt and red plaid pajama pants, his hair was ruffled and his eyes were red and heavy.

"Pete, what's the matter?" Ellie asked with concern in her voice.

"Can't sleep." He answered tiredly.

"Bad dream?" she asked. He rubbed his hair.

"No… just a lot on my mind." Peter said.

"Do you wanna unload?" Ellie sat down next to him.

"No, I…" Peter froze, his eyes narrowed suspiciously, he grabbed Ellie's wrist and pulled her arm close to his face, before Ellie could open her mouth to question his odd behavior, he took a big whiff of her scent and growled, "Ellie! You reek of alcohol!" Ellie, sniffed her shirt and realized he was right. The shirt was still damp from Hotstreak.

"Oh yeah… some idiot spilled it on me." She assured him.

"Oh sure! I believe that! I heard on the news about that underage drinking party at the school!"

"Well yeah, I was there, but I realized it wasn't my crowd so I started to leave but the Meta-Breed crashed it so I had to…"

"Save it! What the hell were you thinking? You're fifteen!" Peter fumed. Ellie was surprised at how angry he was. He could usually care less about his sister's actions. Peter was naturally really relaxed and it took a great deal to set of his temper.

"What's your glitch?" Ellie asked, "I didn't do anything… you're seriously overreacting."

"I'm not overreacting! Have you ever considered the fact that it's slightly hypocritical for someone who goes around punishing low lives, to be hanging out with them too?" Peter snarled. _Now_, Ellie was angry.

"Have you ever considered the fact that it's slightly hypocritical for you to be lecturing me about this when you've had your share of underage drinking parties?" Ellie yelled. Peter leered at her, and Ellie noticed his fist clenched. She took a moment to wonder if he would hit her or not. He noted the fear in her eyes and he relaxed his hand.

"I'm going to bed…" he grumbled.

"Pete…" Ellie called quietly.

"Screw off, El." Pete said.

* * *

**SO Static's warming up to Velocity a teeny tiny bit :) **

**And Ellie's SUPER curious about Richie's relation to Static.**

**And there is a reason for Peter's totally out of character anger, I'll explain it later.**

**And I'd like to thank everybody who reviewed, you flatter me :) *blushes and looks away all girly like***

**And… HAPPY SUMMER!**


	5. Eyes

"**Missed the last train home, birds pass by to tell me that I'm not alone. Well I'm pushing myself to finish this part, I can handle a lot, but the one thing I'm missing… is in your eyes." -Eyes, Rogue Wave.**

* * *

Ellie was well prepared for her first day of school. She didn't need much sleep, in fact it was difficult for her to sleep. Her father had discovered his daughters strange sleep disorder when she was two. Ellie needed movement, she was a restless person, when she slept all by herself there was no movement and she'd toss and turn usually only getting two hours of sleep before her body woke her up. But if she had someone else in her bed with her she could sleep much longer, sometimes all throughout the night. The breathing and movement from the other person soothed her and made it easier to relax. Ellie was perfectly content with just sleeping by herself though, three hours of sleep was more than enough to regenerate her system.

So Ellie had woken up at 5:30. She hadn't done much with her, it was a lost cause, her blond hair was flat and pin straight almost incapable of being curled or scrunched. She decided to wear her orange sun dress. It was a loud color, but it was pretty much solid, save one curly flower design that led up to the shoulder. Most of her clothing were pastels with intricate designs and Ellie wasn't really in the mood to get noticed. The dress was a decent length too, most of her dresses and skirts pretty short. She had her best friend Constance to thank for that, she could clearly hear her voice ringing through her head the day they had picked out her wardrobe, _"You have nice legs Eleanor! It's a crime to hide them! Besides maybe guys will be so distracted by them they won't notice your ironing board chest." _She rolled her eyes, only Constance could cancel out a compliment with something to shatter her self esteem. Ellie then remembered something; she still hadn't properly treated her burn. Then as she started to the bathroom she realized something else… she didn't know _how_ to properly treat a burn. So that's what brought her to the white door as she quietly knocked.

"Daddy?" she called. Whenever she needed help from her father it always set her back to when she was five years old. "Are you awake yet?" Malcolm opened the door. His hair was disheveled and he was wearing flannel pants and a large grey T-Shit with the New England Patriots logo across it.

"Well don't you look pretty." he yawned. Ellie smiled and looked away bashfully.

"Thanks dad…" she said, then she looked back, "Um, how do you treat a burn?" Malcolm's eyes fell into a curious suspicion.

"Why?" he dragged out quietly.

"I may have been injured in my last fight…" Ellie said vaguely, Malcolm crossed his arms, Ellie sighed, "OH come on, I'm not used to fighting a hyped up little pyro, he got a lucky shot, it's not gonna happen again."

"Why don't you learn about your enemies before you face them? You just have to RUSH in and act reckless and… I'm not getting into this, I'm tired. There's some burn ointment in the medicine chest which is…" Malcolm went to point at the bathroom but groaned, "packed." He finished weakly.

"I still have an hour before school, I'll look for it. Thanks dad." Ellie reached up and kissed his cheek.

"Will you wake up Peter before you leave?" Malcolm requested. Ellie paused and shifted.

"Do I have to? Pete's pretty mad at me." She stated. Malcolm looked up curiously for the second time.

"Pete's always mad at you."

"It's different…" Ellie sighed, "I think I screwed up."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know… I kinda feel like I crossed a line with him. I'm not sure how. I always thought it'd be like a comment about being jobless or his lack of ambition to set him over the edge."

"Why are you trying to set your brother over the edge? Isn't moving stressful enough?"

"I wasn't _trying_ to! He pushed me first; he took a shot at Velocity." Ellie said defensively.

"Oh… I see. Do you want me talk to him?" Malcolm asked.

"No, it's a sibling thing… we'll work it out, don't worry that pretty little head of yours." Ellie smiled grinding her fist into the thick brown curls she had NOT inherited. "Go back to sleep and have a spectacular first day."

"I hope you have a spiffy first day yourself El," Malcolm yawned and retired back into his room. Ellie skipped off to the bathroom and began to shift the boxes around. She knew the medicine chest weighed more than she did. Her father was always prepared in case his little Velocity came home with a bad battle wound. Not to mention the fact Peter was also a danger magnet. He was really tall but anything but graceful, he had a habit of hitting his head on doorframes and tripping over things. Ellie eventually found the chest in the bottom box. She pulled it out and sorted through it. The burn ointment was at the bottom underneath most of the first aid supplies. Ellie hiked up her dress passed her belly button and applied it quickly then she took the gauze and wrapped it around her stomach the best she could. She flattened the wrinkles in her dress and let her shoulders relax. She was done preparing everything but something felt missing.

Breakfast, she realized. So she raced down the stairs into the kitchen and pulled out the bacon and eggs from the fridge. She was sure to make extra for Malcolm and Peter, she placed two lids over the plates to preserve heat. She made her breakfast into a sandwich and she decided to go and visit Richie. She had a half an hour to kill and she had to work on getting closer to the blond. Her curiosity was eating her alive, how could geeky little Richie have any connection to Static? She knew she couldn't ask him directly, after all she had been "using the telephone" when Velocity was talking with the two. She'd have to do this the old fashioned way… good ole chick manipulation. Her mother would have been a more than adequate teacher if she hadn't left. But Ellie had learned from the best, another good tip she had gotten from Constance. So she walked down the steps of her home and gingerly skipped across the street. She knocked on the door only once. It took a grand total of four seconds before a tall burly blond man answered. Ellie shrunk into nothing and decided she would rather face Hotstreak again than this man. He was a beastly looking and had a stern grumpy look on his face.

"Whaddaya want?" he questioned.

"Um… I'm here to see Richie?" Ellie squeaked unsure of herself. The man grunted in approval and opened the door slightly. Ellie walked in awkwardly standing off to the side.

"Rich, you have company!" he called loudly. Ellie was thankful when he walked away not bothering to wait for his son's reply.

"V? You here already?" Richie started as he went down the stairs and stopped when he saw Ellie, "Oh, hey Ellie, what's up?"

"Oh not much… I thought I'd stop by and see you. I don't really want to be alone… First day jitters." She explained twirling a piece of her blond hair and then she looked down, "I can leave if you want."

"Oh no, it's okay. You can catch a ride with me and V. We'll make sure you get to homeroom." Richie offered. Ellie was internally grinning mischievously; Richie was certainly buying into the helpless girl next door act. Richie motioned upstairs.

"Uh… I have to finish getting ready before V comes." Richie started.

"Oh, I'll help. It's the least I can do." Ellie finished and pranced up the stairs beside him. The burly man re-entered and watched Ellie as she walked up the stairs with his son. As soon as they reached out of his earshot Ellie whispered, "Your dad is pretty intimidating."

"Yeah… he scares away most of my friends." Richie grinned, "But he's just extra grumpy this morning. He's leaving for a business trip in New York, it's gonna take him all day to get there."

Richie opened the door to his room and Ellie looked around curiously when the lights were flicked on. The floor was scattered with his Biology and History notes, the desk occupied some partially read comic books and some open bags of chips. Ellie sat down on his blue comforter. She watched him hurriedly gather a mixture of books and binders; he shoved them in until his backpack was stretched out to its maximum length. He had to grab onto both pieces of fabric and pull them closer together in order to zip it shut. Ellie pulled out her pathetically empty backpack which consisted of one notebook, a pencil and her bacon and egg sandwich. She pulled it out and unwrapped the foil she had covered it in. She ripped it in half and outstretched her hand inviting Richie to take one of the halves.

"Oh… I'm alright, I usually just get something from the vending machines anyway…" Richie explained.

"Oh come on, I insist. I wasn't even going to eat the whole thing anyway. If you refuse you're only starving those poor kids in Africa everyone hears so much about." Ellie persisted.

"Fine, I'll do it for the children." Richie smiled and took the half. He sat down on the comforter next to her and they ate together. Ellie glanced over and noticed he wasn't wearing his glasses. There was nothing obscuring the beautiful shade of blue in his eyes. She couldn't help but be jealous of the deep ocean blue color that was painted over his irises. She was also jealous of how innocuous they were, they gave a certain gentility to his face. Every feature of his face complimented each other. Richie paused as he noticed Ellie gazing at him. His hand moved to his cheek self consciously and he asked, "Is there something on my face?"

"No." Ellie assured him and took another bite of the sandwich, "You're very easy on the eyes."

"What?" Richie said as he choked on his sandwich. The thought of being hit on by the pretty girl next door was quite outrageous to him.

"Your eyes… you have nice eyes." She informed him.

"Oh… um… thank you." Richie sputtered, he observed her face as well and added, "You have nice eyes too."

"Mine are kinda pasty…" Ellie said her mouth tilted to one side in distaste.

"They give you character." Richie guaranteed her. She grinned.

"Character, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"That's just a polite way of saying freakish."

"No it's not, it's saying they're a unique trait. They make you stand out." Richie explained. Ellie gave a small laugh and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Thanks Richie." Ellie stated. She let out a yawn as she stretched her back. Her legs crossed and she grinned as she noticed Richie's eyes had laid rest on them. It felt weird flirting with him as Ellie. Velocity flirted with everyone, so Ellie got out all of her wild behavior through that vent. But the hyper teenager was actually more old-fashioned than she seemed. She was a firm believer of that old saying that men should make the first move.

Ellie had to stop and consider this for a moment. Was she leading him on? Just using him until she got the information she wanted? Now she was beginning to feel bad. In fact she felt downright horrible! How could she do that to poor Richie? She did like him. He was funny and sweet, and she had to admit that he was cute. She couldn't risk hurting him. Maybe she'd just have to get closer to him another way…

"Can you help me out in History?" Ellie blurted out. Richie looked at her strangely.

"What?"

"I'm totally clueless in History as it is… and I have no idea what you guys have learned so far." Ellie reminded him.

"Oh… um yeah. I could do that." Richie nodded.

"Great!" Ellie grinned. The blaring noise of a car horn filled Richie's room. The two blonds stood up impulsively.

"The V-Bus is here." Richie announced as he slung his back pack over his shoulder.

"Hope Virgil doesn't mind that I'm hitching a ride." Ellie wondered out loud.

"Oh he won't care, Virgil has a constant need to help people." Richie explained. Ellie lifted her backpack as well and she was now anticipating the commencing of her first day of school at Dakota Union High.

* * *

She was now _desperately_ awaiting the end of her first day of school at Dakota Union High! Was it possible for anyone to have worse luck than her? Her day started off with the slimiest teacher in the world. Richie and Virgil's description of Mr. Goff did not accurately portray his pure evilness. He growled a less than humble welcome to her after tossing the three hundred pound text book at her. He appointed her the front desk and then called on her four times during the lesson. And then he assigned her six pages of homework on her first day.

The classes she had with Virgil and Richie had been sufferable. Especially when Richie told off a group kids that had been gawking at her like she was a Martian. The high point of her day was lunch, she got to meet Daisy and she was re-introduced to Frieda under better circumstances. The greasy sloppy joes were the only thing to damper her cheery disposition during lunch.

But gym. Gym was supposed to be cake for her. She never even considered gym a class, it was her break during the day. It actually bummed her out that she had to slow down her running. But other than that Ellie had everything a natural athlete had. She was graceful and she had excellent hand eye coordination. But of course, something had happened to ruin the easiest class in the world. Francis Stone happened. She hadn't considered him the type to be in school. But he had been released for good behavior (which made Ellie wonder what exactly the juvenile delinquent centers standards of good behavior were) and since he hadn't been caught the previous night, he was still going to school. But Francis recognized Ellie as the girl who had turned him down and mispronounced his name. This made her gym class absolute Hell. The fiery red head paid some very inappropriate attention to her. And of course Ellie had no defense mechanism so she angrily had to sit back and take it. Even when he slapped her butt with a blazing hand. Oh yes… Hotstreak was going to pay when Velocity ran into him.

So now Ellie had to sit back in her Spanish Class desperately awaiting for her last period of the day to be over. The bell finally rang and Ellie jumped up carrying her backpack which now weighed much more due to the accumulated books. She practically sprinted into the hallway and through the bustling crowd of students. She pulled a sharp left right outside two twin doors. She was in the back of the school and she grinned when she saw no one in sight. It was perfect, she could change into Velocity and go on a quick patrol before going home. She straightened her back and pulled the yellow costume out of her backpack, until a certain blond appeared almost out of no where.

"Hey Ellie." Richie greeted pleasantly. The sudden human interaction almost made her jump out of her skin. The right hand that held the costume zipped behind her back to conceal it from sight. She stumbled and fell into an awkward stance, she leaned against the wall for support.

"Uh, hey Richie. What's up?" she answered too quickly. Richie looked at her with a strange expression on his face.

"Nothing much… did you still want that help in History?" he asked. Ellie nodded vigorously.

"Mmhmm, sounds great. I… uh… I mean uh, when did you want to do that?" Ellie asked.

"How about today? Well I mean unless you're stressed from your first day."

"Well uh yeah, just um…OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THAT LLAMA!" Ellie shouted and pointed directly behind Richie. The blond turned quickly and Ellie shoved the yellow costume back into her book bag. Richie looked back slowly with a confusion etched into his expression. Ellie smiled sheepishly and retracted the arm that had pointed. "Oh… I guess it was… just a tree."

"Yeah…" Richie said still slightly bemused at the sudden outburst. Ellie perked up right away now that she didn't have to worry about Richie catching her as Velocity.

"Yeah cool, let's go now, my dad gets out of work at 5, think we'll be done by then?" Ellie asked.

"Well yeah, I'm sure it'll only take an hour, the New York educational system isn't _that_ far behind." Richie shrugged.

"Ha! Most of my friends are either sluts or gang bangers and they manage to pass accelerated classes. Trust me, I'll need all the help I can get." Ellie grinned.

"Whatever you say. Come on, we can make this bus." Richie pulled her along and they both raced up the stairs of the public transportation method. They sat down on a grimy seat that reeked of sweat. An obese man wearing a white beater had fallen asleep with a greasy hotdog resting on an oily roll of his fat. His mouth was opened wide and he was snoring was loudly.

"And here I thought nothing would ever feel like New York again…" Ellie wrinkled up her nose in distaste/nostalgia for the many days of traveling via bus, taxi cab and subway.

"I think all cities are the same when the chips are down." Richie shrugged, "Depressing, hectic, polluted and filled with budding criminals."

"Well, not all cities, I mean, you guys have Static, right?" Ellie reminded him.

"Yeah we do." Richie grinned and nodded.

"…what do you know about Static?" Ellie couldn't help her curiosity, trying to cover up the small bit of suspicion in her voice she added, "I don't know that much about him or anything. Just what I read in the newspaper."

"Well… he's basically our local super hero. He's a great guy, one of the best you'll ever meet."

"You've met him?"

"Oh well, yeah, you know a few times. Trouble seems to find me and he's gotten me out of some sticky situations." Richie said.

"Do you ever help him out of trouble?" Ellie asked. Richie squirmed uncomfortably his eyes darted to the window.

"Almost our stop." He stated quickly.

"Alright…" Ellie said deciding not to press for any more information. After the familiar neighborhood setting came into view. The two teenagers exited the bus. Richie walked up his driveway as Ellie pranced along side of him. She was filled with bountiful energy as always. Richie pulled out his key and unlocked the door, Ellie stepped in after him. The house was empty, because Maggie Foley had already left for work and Sean Foley had left for his business trip earlier in the morning. Ellie smiled, she had been so intimidated by Richie's father that she hadn't really looked around at the household. It was warm and welcoming, a pleasant mix of colors creating a friendly vibe. The curtains were hung eloquently and there were a few paintings on the wall. It reminded Ellie of her old apartment, when everything wasn't in boxes and there wasn't an echoing boom every time someone took a footstep. She was lead back up the stairs and into Richie's room for the second time that day. Taking a seat on Richie's bed, Ellie spotted a radio, "Can we turn that on?" she pointed, "I need a little music while studying.

"Yeah, of course." Richie flicked on the switch to the ancient looking radio. There was some minor buzzing before the clear sound of a guitar riff was heard. Richie pulled out his History binder and book and joined Ellie on the bed, "So we started off the year learning about the American Revolution." Richie started to explain. Ellie internally groaned, she didn't actually want to review for her History Class, it had just been excuse to spend more time with him. The American Revolution was the farthest thing from her mind. Currently three things were whirl winding past that blond hair. Her priorities consisted of: finding out what Richie was hiding, thinking of a way to get back at Hotstreak and how she was going to dissipate Peter's anger at her. A loud radio commercial ceased Richie's talking and Ellie's thoughts.

"_What's up Dakota? Are you having superhero overload? First Static, now Velocity? Well tune in to 101.2 WWDK at 7 O' clock to 8 O' clock on the weekends! We're going to have one SUPER hour where you can call in and share your best meta-human stories! Hosted by Adam Evans, also known as Rubber Band Man! So start recollecting and listen to Dakota Super Power Hour, Saturdays and Sundays at 7 O' Clock!" _The announcement ended and was replaced with a soft rock song. Ellie grinned and shook her head.

"Dakota's taking this whole situation a little too far… don't ya think?" she said. Richie gave a small chuckle and was about to agree but he was interrupted by the sound of the Shock Vox.

"Static to Richie, come in." Richie's small smile melted off his face completely and anxiety laced its way into his expression, his hands raced over his clothing desperate to find the Shock Vox. Meanwhile, Ellie watched him with amused eyes. Static's voice continued to ring through the Shock Vox, "Dude! Come in. I wanna meet you at the gas …" Richie found it underneath his desk and quickly pressed the button before Virgil said anything to compromise his cover. He let out a nervous laugh.

"I just…I have to… you know… take this." He cleared his throat and quickly ran out of the room. The blond closed the door behind him and walked a little farther down the hallway before responding.

"Hey Static! You have to be more careful, I wasn't alone in there!" Richie whispered quickly.

"Hey, I'm sorry Rich. But I had to get away from Sharon. Did you hear that Adam is hosting that Power Hour thing?"

"Yeah, I just heard."

"Well, it's apparently a big break for him, they're giving him money to do it and they're gonna play some of his songs on the radio. Sharon's flipping out. And she kicked me and Pops out of the house so she can make a congratulatory dinner for him. So I'm thinking let's meet up at the gas station and hit some comic book stores."

"Oh V, I can't. I have Ellie over." Richie said.

"Really?" Virgil's tone changed into a more playful sing song voice, "What are you guys doing?"

"Reviewing. For History. It's nothing." Richie stated, "You can come over too if you want."

"Nah, I'll leave you kids alone. Give me the dirty details later though."

"There aren't any dirty details, you're just assuming..." Richie started.

"Static out." The Shock Vox silenced and Richie rolled his eyes. He regained his posture and re-entered the room. Ellie's eyes quickly darted away as soon as he entered. It was quite obvious she had been watching the door awaiting his imminent return.

"Is there action going on?" Ellie couldn't help but ask.

"No. Static just called… to see… if I was okay from last night. He was concerned I was at that party." Richie lied nervously.

"So you're close?" Ellie asked.

"Oh hardly… you know… we're just like… acquaintances." Richie lied.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's why you have a walkie talkie in your room that he can contact you with at any given moment." Ellie smiled.

"It's actually called a Shock Vox…" Richie corrected, Ellie raised an eyebrow, and Richie sighed and admitted, "Okay, we're kinda close. Please don't tell anyone. He trusts me to keep his secrets."

"Sure… I promise, I won't say anything." Ellie nodded.

"Thanks…" Richie said softly, he then shook it off, "Now… how about this History Review?"

* * *

"Okay so after we learned about the Holocaust, we started to learn about the Cold War and communism. And that's basically what lead us in to Vietnam, which we're learning now…" Richie trailed off and realized he had been talking in silence for a while, "Are you even listening to me?" he turned to ask, but Ellie's eyes were closed and her mouth was parted as she breathed steadily. She had fallen asleep. Richie just let out a small amused laugh and tossed his comforter over her sleeping form. He snapped the History book shut and went to get off the bed but Ellie reached out her arm to his side of the bed. For a moment Richie could have sworn she was awake.

"Don't… go." She sleep talked and then retracted her arm, "I'm too slow… I can't be fast now…" She mumbled some more nonsense and then returned to her peaceful form. Richie understood it was just a reflex, but at the same time he felt like he couldn't leave her now that she had asked. So he rolled on his side as well to make more room on the bed and he turned off the lamp that was just above their heads.

"I was feeling tired anyways," he said to himself as he slowly succumbed to sleep as well.

* * *

**Reviews are always nice sweet cake ;)**


	6. Raindrops

**Chapt-uh Six is in the Hizz-ouse! **

"**Round each corner there's a chance. People searching glance to glance. Moving bout real fast like insects and fish when they're scared." –Raindrops, Regina Spektor**

* * *

Richie was the first to wake up, he noticed his window was dark and now wondered what time it was. His eyes moved to the nightstand and he almost gasped as he realized it was now 6:15. Ellie and him had been sleeping since 3:30. Thank God, his mother was still working and his father was away on business. He shuttered to think what his father would do if he found a girl in his bed. Just then he became aware of just how close Ellie was. She tossed and turned in her sleep for a while, he could feel the movement but she had finally settled on a position. She had nestled her head into his clavicle and she had one arm around his lower back holding him close. Her soft bare legs had slid over his jean covered ones. And her pelvis was pressed against his, forcing Richie out of his comfort zone. He felt an urge to pull away, but at the same time, there was another urge to pull her closer. He shook his head and straightened up, he was slightly embarrassed when he realized that his hand had been resting on her hip. He brought himself to a sitting position, and realized if he didn't wake up Ellie soon, she'd probably be in trouble with Malcolm. So he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Ellie… Ellie wake up." He called softly. She startled awake and looked around the room in panic. One of the side effects of having incredibly fast reflexes. She sighed in relief as she saw Richie's face.

"Oh hey Richie…" she looked at the darkened window, "Sheesh, how long was I out?"

"About 3 hours… roughly." Richie turned her attention to the clock. Her mouth dropped.

"Oh man! Why didn't you wake me up?" she pulled herself to a sitting position as well and scrambled underneath the blankets.

"I fell asleep too." Richie said.

"Oh man… my dad's gonna kill me." she stated, "I promised him I'd be home to tell him about my first day and all that jazz."

"Sorry I probably should have stayed awake in case something like this..." he started to apologize until Ellie waved it off.

"Not your fault. I probably should have guessed I would pass out during a history review…" she said as she took her shoes off the floor and started to tie them. She looked over at Richie, who looked slightly awkward. "What's eating you?"

"Me? Nothing… nothing at all." Richie said as he shoved his hands in his pockets nervously, Ellie gave him a look and he shrugged, "Well… I'm just not used to having girls in my bed." He stated.

"Oh… I see…" She said, then something occurred to her and she looked up sheepishly.

"I didn't… I didn…" She stammered and then she sighed and looked down. After a moment she looked up and Richie could swear he saw a pink color enter her pale cheeks, "I didn't cling to you did I?"

"What?" Richie responded stupidly, it was too quick, it sounded defensive. He paused and nodded, "Yeah… you did." Ellie looked up the pink color turning to red and working its way across her face.

"Sorry about that… see, when ever I sleep next to someone I always clutch on to them. I guess um… I like movement… so I just sleep better when I'm with someone… I couldn't even sleep alone when I was younger…sorry." Ellie rambled an apology once more. Richie gave a small smile, despite the awkwardness; he couldn't say he didn't enjoy it.

"Don't worry about it." He said. Ellie got to her feet and slid her backpack over her shoulder, "I'll walk you home if you want." He offered.

"Oh that's sweet… but I think I'll make the trip okay, it's right across the street." Ellie reminded him.

"Right… I forgot." He said, "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, you know I'd give you a hug, but you've probably had enough of my clinginess." She smirked.

"I think I could suffer through it." Richie responded. Ellie let out a low laugh and wrapped her arms around him. Her face pressed against his neck for a moment, and Richie didn't want her to leave. Ellie was the one to let go.

"Be seeing you." She stated and walked out of the room. She closed Richie's door and sped out of the house in a millisecond. Ellie finished her quick run and pressed her back against the door of her home. Her hands pressed against her cheek and she could feel her smile widen to the point where most of her teeth were showing. She had felt much too comfortable with Richie, he had been warm and welcoming. She loved how he made her feel. Maybe this whole living in Dakota issue wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Ellie turned around and opened the door as quietly as she could manage, and slid into her house. She closed the door behind her, making sure the only sound that came from it was the metallic clink of the lock. She crept through the hallway and wanted to cry out in sweet relief as the stairs came into view.

"Oh Eleanor, can I have a word with you?" Malcolm called from the kitchen. Ellie cursed herself and threw her arms down in frustration of being caught.

"Yeah dad." She said, and walked into the kitchen. Malcolm was pouring some coffee into his favorite mug.

"Hey sweetheart, how was your day?" he questioned. Ellie's eyes narrowed suspiciously, maybe she wasn't in trouble.

"Oh it was um… good. You?" she asked. He nodded and sat down at the table.

"Well, pretty good until I reached home and discovered both my children were missing and they weren't picking up their cell phones." He said with an eyebrow raised. Yeah, she was in trouble, Ellie sighed.

"I'm sorry dad. I went to Richie's, so he could help me out with History and I fell asleep." She said.

"And it didn't occur to him to wake you up?" he asked.

"He fell asleep too." Ellie responded, "And we just woke up a few minutes ago, so I haven't even touched my phone… I'm sorry…"

"Yeah I know, its okay I guess. Truth be told, I'm glad you got some sleep." He said tiredly.

"You're not mad?" Ellie asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice.

"No… well I mean I would have preferred that you slept in your own bed instead of sleeping with Richie…" Malcolm paused and considered his word choice, "…_at_ Richie's." he stopped again, and shook his head ending the discussion, "Where in God's name is your brother?" he complained.

"Want me to take a run around the city to see if I can find him?" she offered. Malcolm shook his head again.

"If he's not back in an hour, I'll go out and look for him myself. You should get some more sleep." He said.

"Dad that's unnecessary, I got plenty of sleep, I'll get him and bring him back before his bed time." Ellie stood to her feet. Malcolm put down his coffee mug.

"Well, I'm going with you." He stated.

"You'll only slow me down. I'll be back in a flash." Ellie said finally. Before leaving her house she stopped into the bathroom and changed into Velocity. With that she sped around the city. She quickly ran down the major sidewalks trying to identify her brother among the random pedestrians. After an hour of this failed process she decided to take a break and think of a back up plan. She sat down on a park bench. The old woman who had been sitting down next to her was looking at her strangely. She slowly slid in the opposite direction until she faked a cough, stood up and awkwardly walked away. Velocity sighed and cradled her head in her hands not paying too much attention to the woman. Dakota might not have been as big as New York City, but it certainly offered a lot of places for Peter to hide.

"_This just in: Meta-Humans are currently underway of robbing of the Dakota Bank, there are 14 hostages inside, our extraordinary footage brings you inside the horror filled atmosphere…"_ a nearby television stated from the window of an electronic store. Velocity began to tear herself away from the temptation when she caught the face of one of the hostages. A blurred tall and skinny looking man with dark hair. 'It couldn't be' Velocity thought to herself.

"_Hey what are you doing back there?"_ a police officer burst into the way of the news crews footage, _"No cameras!"_ he stated. The special report ended and it went back to the regular news anchors. But the yellow clad heroine had seen all she needed to.

"Pete…" Ellie said meekly. She raced off to the bank with such a blinding speed that she crashed right into Static. The electric hero had been standing on the ground while talking to Richie Foley. Velocity leapt right off his chest.

"Sorry Sparky." She said apprehensively looking around, "Is this the back entrance to the bank?"

"It's Static." Static corrected as he stood up, "And maybe… what's it to ya?"

"Listen Static, I can't fight with you. I **have** to get in there." Velocity stated anxiously and then hesitantly added, "Someone I care about is in there." Static gave her a genuine sympathetic look.

"Yeah… this is the back entrance. We have to make sure we don't trip the alarm. I'm working on it now." Static informed her.

"Thank you." Velocity smiled. Static went back to work, he pressed his hand against the door attempting to find the small alarm and disable it. While he was working on that, Velocity turned her attention to Richie for what seemed like the billionth time that day. The blond was staring at her with his gorgeous blue eyes.

"Hey sugar, don't you ever _avoid_ dangerous situations like normal people?" Velocity asked.

"Don't you?" Richie countered.

"Touché Blondie." Velocity allowed and stepped back towards Static. He grunted and there was a metallic clink.

"Got it." He announced.

"Thanks." Velocity said and ran passed him. Static had to grab onto the doorway from keeping the force of the wind from knocking him off his feet. He displayed his annoyance and followed her in. Leaving Richie all alone in the back alley.

Velocity came to a stop behind a bank teller counter. She peeked over the top. She saw Ebon stretching himself out and piling bags of money inside of himself. The meta-human that was threatening the hostages was a tall Jamaican man with abnormally large feet.

"Some super power." Velocity mumbled to herself. Her eyes glanced over every hostage until she came to the tall and dark haired man she had seen on television. It was most certainly Peter. _"Damn it Pete! How'd you get mixed up in this?"_ she thought bitterly. But the suit and tie were definitely a clue that he was applying for a job. She raised her head slightly trying to get a good look at all of the hostages and how many there were. She was trying to remain low before drawing attention to herself but it was a failed attempt because she caught Peter's eye. He was aggravated to see his little sister in costume and he mouthed the words "Get out of here." But Velocity shook her head stubbornly. Kangor noticed Peter's head raised. He walked over, placed a hand on Peter's head and violently directed it back to the ground. Velocity's fist clenched and her knuckles cracked from the tension. She lowered herself completely and crawled along making sure to stay out of the meta-human's line of vision. She eventually spotted Static crouching down out of sight as well. When she was sure that the meta-humans couldn't see her she sped over next to him.

"You take Ebon again. I got the foot freak." Velocity stated through clenched teeth. Static could sense her anger.

"Maybe I should take Kangor." Static whispered.

"No way! I'm not letting him get away with threatening my… person that I care about." Velocity stopped herself from revealing too much information. She didn't want to blow her identity completely.

"Are you sure you can control yourself? People do terrible things when they're angry." Static lectured.

"It's really touching that you're worrying about me. I was kind of under the impression that you weren't all that crazy about me." Velocity grinned.

"I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about the poor soul you encounter." Static crossed his arms.

"Yeah, well that _poor_ soul is definitely gonna think twice before threatening someone I care about ever again. Count of three?" she held up three fingers. Static said nothing in response. He only nodded and watched as she slowly lowered each finger.

When the countdown was zero, Velocity leaped over the counter and sped out and tackled Kangor with so much force they both went sailing into a glass window and it shattered. Static zipped out on his disc and shot out so much electricity at Ebon he was reduced to almost nothing. Loose dollar bills went fluttering to the ground and some of the hostages were ashamed to shove them into their pockets when no one was looking. Peter Covelli was among them.

"Static!" Ebon growled, "You picked the wrong night to mess with me _hero_!" The shadow whipped his figure around and knocked Static right out of the air. Static landed on his back and cringed when he felt the crunch from the broken window shards underneath him. Ebon's arm morphed into a giant hammer and he grunted as he tried to bring it down with all his force. Static gasped before quickly rolling out of the way.

Velocity had been able to hold her own in this fight against Kangor until he delivered a mighty kick into her burned stomach. Velocity landed on her side 20 yards away, her arms wrapping around her stomach which was clenched with pain. Her breathing consisted of short and sharp gasps. Kangor loomed towards her menacingly, getting ready to finish the job.

"NO!" Peter stood up and screamed. Kangor turned his attention back to the dark haired male. He completely forgot about Velocity for the moment and moved back towards Peter. Ellie cringed at hearing her brother's voice and it took everything inside her to stand up with her wobbly legs. Kangor jumped up in the air and was ready to squish Peter, before Ellie sped up and quickly tackled her brother out of the way.

"Get out of here Pete, it's dangerous." The heroine ordered with a wheeze. Peter went to shake his head defiantly, but Velocity's eyes narrowed dangerously and she gave him a forceful push towards the door. Kangor regained his stature and Velocity regained what was left of hers. She could still run circles around him.

A loud crash made Velocity and Kangor both turn their heads. Static had used his electricity to pull the safe door off it's hinges. He molded it around Ebon, which would have been a good plan if he didn't immediately slither out. Ebon grabbed the safe door and slammed it right into Static. The young hero hit the wall and fell.

"Static!" Velocity cried out when he failed to get up. She sped over and lifted the heavy metal safe door off of Static. There was a line of blood streaking down his face and Velocity gasped, "Oh man. Sparky wake up!" she panicked. And when she looked up she realized Ebon and Kangor were making a break for it. "URG!" she growled. She couldn't leave him by himself to go chase after the low lives.

"El!" Peter ran forward and sat next to her.

"Don't use my name!" Velocity snapped, then she waited a moment before growling "You were supposed to leave."

"Well I didn't." Peter stated. Velocity opened her mouth to argue with him when an idea struck.

"Good, stay with Sparky here, I'm going after the loser's." she said and didn't leave him a millisecond to argue before speeding after the meta-humans.

* * *

Richie Foley was hardly the patient type. He had been pacing around the back alley waiting for Static to get a move on. Luckily the police were generally dumb and no one had thought to check it yet. So Richie sat against the brick wall between the steel metal door and a dumpster to his left. Raindrops were beginning to fall and Richie sighed. A big fat raindrop that held developed severe tension on the gutter above him fell right on his glasses. He pulled them off his face and began to wipe them clean with his shirt, when the door crashed right off its hinges and plunged six feet straight in front of the door frame. Richie sprang to his feet remaining against the wall, he fumbled slightly but managed to slam his glasses back securely on the bridge of his nose. Kangor ran out and made a clean run to the left of Richie. He hadn't even noticed the blond standing there. He let out a sigh of relief but quickly silenced himself when Ebon slithered out. The shadow was about to tread after Kangor but unfortunately for Richie, the blond had caught his eye.

"You… don't I know you from somewhere?" Ebon asked menacingly getting uncomfortably closer to him.

"Oh, you know how it is… big city…" Richie shrugged keeping his tone as light and casual as he could. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't hide the nervousness out of his voice.

"You're that Foley kid, the one who hangs out with Static." Ebon growled suspiciously. Richie wished he could back up more but his back was already pressed against the wall. The shadowy hand caught his throat in one swift movement. "I got sent to jail because of you!"

"You… used me… to try… and catch… Static." Richie strained to say, the muscles in his neck ached in pain from Ebon's grip. The meta-human gripped tighter, displeased with the fact the boy could even form words with his hand clutching his throat. Prison must have made him go a bit soft.

"You're coming with me geek." Ebon informed him. He jerked Richie forward by his neck so he was off of the wall. The shadow pulled him along the alleyway and Richie kicked and punched with all of his might as Ebon reached a sewer lid. Ebon used his free hand to open it so he could make his escape with his alternative trophy. They were interrupted as Velocity sped through the doorway. Ebon groaned, "Not you again…"

"Richie!" Velocity cried out in surprise, "Let him go!" she ordered. Ebon looked at the costumed heroine to the blond and then back again.

"You know him _too_?" Ebon asked, "He seems to be quite an asset to you heroes." Velocity let out a small gulp. Richie had just fallen into a very dangerous place to be in. Especially, if Ebon told other villains of Richie's connections to Static and Velocity.

"Alright I gave you the chance…" Velocity shrugged, she dashed over to the shadow throwing in a few well delivered punches. She grabbed Richie's arm and swung him out of Ebon's fury. Richie scrambled back into the wall again, farther away from the fighting meta-humans. The two got into a close hand to hand battle. When the sound of a police siren blared too close for comfort. Ebon kicked Velocity in the stomach sending her backwards for the second time that night. She landed not too far from Richie and Ebon looked at them both angrily.

"This isn't over. You better watch your back…" he growled maniacally and cast his eyes to Richie, "Both of you." Then he slithered into the sewer. Velocity made a move to follow him but the lid to the sewer closed before she had the chance. She groaned. Richie's blue eyes were widened fearfully at Ebon's threat. Velocity swallowed particularly hard at seeing the panic in the poor boys expression. She went to go squat down next to him but her stomach gave a sharp pain when she did so. She sat down next to him instead.

"It'll be okay… Ebon doesn't know where to find you." She tried comforting him.

"It's not that hard to pick up a phone book and find Foley…" Richie shrugged humorlessly. Velocity sighed she reached down into her belt and pulled out a small square card.

"Look, I don't usually do this… but… this is my card. That's my private cell number." Velocity instructed, "If you even suspect a shadow of looking suspicious, you give me a call and I'll be there in a flash." Richie fingered the small card and looked over at her.

"Why?" Richie asked, those curious blue eyes staring into hers.

"I'm pretty sure you and Static are starting to grow on me. I'd hate to see something happen to you guys." Velocity smiled. Something occurred to Richie.

"How did you know my name?" He asked, Velocity looked over confused, and he reminded her, "When you came out of the door, you yelled my name and told Ebon to let me go. But I've never mentioned it. You always just call me Blondie." Velocity stood to her feet giving him a wide smile.

"You are certainly observant. I like "Blondie" I think it suits you. But just because I call you Blondie doesn't mean I can't do my homework and find out who you really are, Richard Foley." She informed him.

"Mind telling me who you are?" Richie asked. Another toothy grin spread across her face.

"Maybe some other time, love." She stated before standing up and blowing him a small kiss, "See ya around." Richie rolled her eyes as she sped out of his vision within a fraction of a second. He stood up, his hand fell to the surely new developing bruise around his neck.

Velocity shrugged off her mask and costume replacing it with street attire in the small bathroom of the McDonalds across the street. She stepped out of the restaurant and back into the crowd. Each of the hostages was either being interviewed by the press or the police. She looked around, getting closer to the crime scene. Through the broken glass she noticed that Static and Pete weren't where she left them. She began to get a little nervous when she remembered Ebon's threat to get back at the heroes. But realized there was no reason to fret as Static's disc zoomed over her head. She saw a bandage on the side of his head and winced in empathy for his pain. She turned back around and spotted Pete talking to a female police office.

"Peter, are you okay?" Ellie asked as she hugged him.

"I'm fine Ellie." Peter nodded. The cop looked over at Ellie and she extended her hand.

"Hi, I'm Eleanor Covelli, I'm his sister." She greeted politely.

"Trina Jessup." She returned, "Listen Peter, we'll be in touch if we have any further questions, okay?"

"Yes that's fine, thank you." Peter nodded and loosened his tie. He let out a sigh of relief and grabbed his sister's hand, "Come on let's get out of here." The siblings maneuvered through the crowds of people, now the rain was beginning to fall harder. By the time they made it home they were both drenched. They kicked off their shoes in the foyer.

"I would have been fine ya know? You didn't have to put yourself in that kind of danger…" Peter crossed his arms.

"Thanks for saving me sis, I really appreciate you sticking out your neck for me." Ellie mocked in a deep voice. "Oh don't worry Pete, you're my brother, you know I love you." She resumed in her normal tone of voice. Peter rolled his eyes.

"I'm being serious." Peter informed her.

"No you're being stupid. I put myself in all kind of danger every time I put on that yellow costume. But saving you and an entire city makes it all worth while." She shook her head. Peter sighed for a moment before taking this into consideration.

"Thanks for saving me." he mumbled. Ellie gave a small smile and hugged him.

"Just be thankful, we're all in the clear now."

* * *

Ebon threw a fist against the walls of his current hideout and growled in frustration. Kangor placed a giant bag of ice on his feet.

"Something troubling you mon?" he asked curiously.

"It's all these damn heroes! I'm sick of it! Why can't they all just stick to their own territory like good little narks?" Ebon shouted in anger, "They're all the same! They show up when they're not wanted! They all smile and flip their hair for the press. They all seem to LOVE little Foley…" Ebon froze, a realization creeping over him, "Foley… he seems to be really tight with Static. And now he knows Velocity too. That little geek might just be the key to getting to them!"

"You gonna stalk that blond kid?" Kangor questioned.

"No…" Ebon stated, "I'm gonna break Talon and Shiv out of lockdown, Talon's the stealthy one, she'll be able to get everything on that kid!" Ebon said mischievously, "We might need a little help though… I think I know just who to get." Ebon snaked out of the room.

"Whatever you say mon." Kangor shook his head at the retreating shadow.

* * *

**Tee hee hee, we're making our way into the plot :D**

**I'm hoping you all like it and thank you for reviewing my little darlings.**


	7. Do The Panic

**As always thank you for the lovely reviews. I'm so excited that you guys are digging this. So basically everything is about to change. Starting with this chapter. Epic stuff is ahead, love.**

"**I guess we're all in trouble, huh? Black clouds are upon us and it's doomsday on the other side of boy survived a severed head when most would just give up for dead. So I said: "Al B. don't get so upset." We all get scared of sticking out our necks. It's expected. So panic"-Do The Panic by Phantom Planet.**

* * *

**4 days later…**

"Eleanor Jean Covelli, get in here!" Malcolm screamed loudly as he pulled out a brown box. He sat back in his black recliner, listening to the news buzz tunelessly. His daughter Ellie rushed into the room eagerly.

"What's going on?" she asked with a frightened look on her face. She had been on edge all week.

"Do you know what this?" Malcolm held up the brown box. Ellie looked it over suspiciously, and then scratched her head.

"A box?" she guessed. Malcolm scoffed disgustedly.

"Not just _any_ box. The_ last_ box. We are officially done unpacking!" Malcolm stated happily. Ellie nodded with an eyebrow raised.

"I'm glad to see you're so stoked to open a box of kitchen supplies." Ellie grinned. Malcolm gave another scoff.

"You're harshing my mellow kid." Malcolm shook his head, "What are you doing tonight?" he asked realizing it was Friday night.

"Me? Why I'm just a friendless loser, I shall spend my night being antisocial and completely alone." Ellie sighed dramatically as she laid out on the couch her feet resting in the air. Malcolm wasn't buying it.

"You got plans with Virgil and Richie again?" he asked.

"Yep, mind if we order a pizza and steal the living room tonight?" she requested.

"Yeah okay, I'll leave some money out on the counter before I go to work." Malcolm nodded and he began to pull the black tape off the box.

"You are the best, father." Ellie stated from the couch.

"No problem sweetheart." Malcolm smiled, then he turned his attention back to the box on his lap. He finished opening it and declared, "It's the toaster oven!"

"Spectacular! I was missing the smell of freshly burnt bagels in the morning." Ellie did a mini-dance of fake happiness.

"Oh goody! I can make you breakfast tomorrow!" Malcolm said enthusiastically. Ellie's dance ceased and she narrowed her eyes.

"Don't you threaten me father!" she said wagging her finger defiantly.

"Oh maybe I'll make you lunch and dinner too, I don't have to go to work tomorrow!" Malcolm said excitedly.

"No! The toaster oven going back into storage!" Ellie made a lunge for the brown device.

"Aren't you supposed to be making this living room actually livable so you can have your fiesta in here?" Malcolm asked.

"Oh, please. It just needs a little vacuuming and some Febreeze so it doesn't smell like the inside of Pete's gym bag." Ellie stated and grabbed a can of Febreeze off of the hutch and sprayed the couches down.

"You're so enthusiastic about creating a habitable environment."

"Look at me! I'm the Febreeze Fairy!" she declared happily.

"Wow, you're really hard core…" Malcolm stated in an uninterested tone as he began trying to untangle the wire from the toaster oven.

"Yeah, I know, I'm hardcore to the max." Ellie said as she sprayed some Febreeze over in the left side of the room, but the fan kicked on and the wind blew the spray back into her eyes, "AH! Daddy! There's a lavender fragrance in my EYES! Help!" she shrieked loudly.

"Go wash them out with water, stupid child!" Malcolm shouted over her yelling.

"Calling me stupid isn't raising my intelligence or self esteem!" Ellie pouted as she ran for the bathroom. She quickly ran some warm water and splashed her face with her eyes wide open. She let out a shudder and used a towel to wipe her face dry. She regained her stature and returned to the living room.

"You're so slick." Malcolm grinned at her.

"Yeah, well that's how I roll." Ellie sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote off of the small end table. She turned up the volume on the television and then jumped to her feet as soon as she caught wind of the news report.

"What?" Malcolm asked.

"That jumped up little pyro is in the process of burning down a park!" Ellie groaned. She stood up and grabbed the phone off the table. Malcolm watched as she quickly punched in a few numbers and pressed the phone to her ear.

"Hey Richie, listen can you guys come over for 6 instead of 5:30?" a pause. "Great! See you soon." She hung up.

"You're only giving yourself a half an hour? How low are your expectations for this guy? I wish you'd take things more seriously, how's the burn?" Malcolm asked.

"It'd be great if people would refrain from punching me in the stomach." Ellie sighed loudly. Malcolm's face fell into a worried expression and Ellie immediately regretted mentioning it. "I'm fine dad… if I was hurt too bad I wouldn't be risking my neck."

"That's a lie and you know it." Malcolm sighed and Ellie stared for a few moments.

"I won't go if you don't want me to." She reluctantly said.

"El, I never _want _you to go. I always wanted you to chose a more passive vent for your powers, like running a marathon or going to the Olympics or something. But you love helping people; it's what makes you happy. And while I might not _want_ you to go, I accept that you have to." Malcolm explained to her. Ellie smiled and kissed the top of his head.

"You're the most understanding father in the universe. I love you daddy." She stated while giving him a hug.

"I love you too." He said, "I'm leaving for work in 10, the money will be on the counter and you might wanna hurry before your company gets here." He suggested.

"Got it." Ellie made a rush for the stairs.

"And El!" Malcolm called. Ellie stopped at the bottom stair and turned around. "Be safe."

"Always." She said with another small smile. And with that, Velocity sped out of the Covelli household.

* * *

Static was already on the scene when Velocity got there. Unfortunately, he had been knocked out of the sky right when Velocity got there. She sighed as she looked down at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked and offered her hand. Static reluctantly took it.

"So we're on a compassionate basis now?" he asked.

"How's your head doing? Didn't look too good, last time I saw you."

"It's okay…"

"Where's your wingman?" she asked as she looked around and noted Richie was not around.

"He's not my wingman." Static protested. But there was no time to argue as flames shot between the electric hero and the swift heroine.

"Hey Hot Shot! Long time no see!" Velocity waved and shouted excitedly. Francis Stone light up and shot a real killer fire ball at her. But she was too quick and he missed. Velocity sped and hit him with a drop kick. Hotstreak hit the ground and glared at her.

"Where's your little fire circle now?" Velocity said making fake cries of terror. Hotstreak grinned and flames shot into a circle and encased the two meta-humans.

"You're in it." He informed her. Velocity looked around hopelessly, there was no where to run unless she went through fire. And she wouldn't be able to build up enough speed to hit Hotstreak with any force. Hotstreak knew it too. He began to approach menacingly and Velocity felt herself do the panic.

"You've caused enough problems Speedster!" Hotstreak announced.

"Bring it Hot Shot!" Velocity growled. An extra hot fire ball just barely missed her, as Hotstreak let out an angry yell.

"It's Hotstreak!" the red head flared. She easily dodged the second ball and skidded to a stop only an inch away from his face.

"And my name isn't Speedster, Hot Head!" She said. The pyro only growled and got frustrated as she sped out of the way of his third attempt.

"Hold still, you little…" Hotstreak was cut off, as she sped behind him and pushed him forward. He landed face down and remained on the ground.

"You gotta be better than that." Velocity shook her head and went to grab his wrists so she could restrain him. But the pyro flipped around and grabbed her by the forearms. She gasped in surprise as he lifted her to his eye level.

"Got you now…" his hands steamed against her flesh, "…Speedy." He said with an evil grin. She winced in pain and desperately tried to pull away from the older man's grip. She may have been faster, but Francis was most definitely stronger.

"You gotta be… hotter than this…" she said through clenched teeth. Hotstreak let out a small amused laugh.

"I guess I'll just have to turn up the heat huh?" Hotstreak said, and Velocity let out a gasp as she felt flames radiate from his hands. She shuttered and her knees caved in, Hotstreak was now the only thing holding her up. Once the flames had died down, Velocity let out a deep breath and then her breathing reduced to anxious panting.

"You're such a burnout…" Velocity growled. Her tone asked for more even though her body was completely limp.

"Burn out huh?" Hotstreak gripped tighter fists tightening around her pale arms, preparing to ignite once more. A ball of electricity hit Francis square in the back, he yelled in pain and released the girl. She crumpled and laid motionless on the sidewalk. Static lowered himself to the scene, he moved to try and pick up Velocity, when Hotstreak sprang back to his feet. Static simply lifted a fire hydrant from its resting place and let it douse Francis with freezing cold water. The angry pyro seemed to be less of a challenge for the electric hero lately. Static resumed the task of lifting Velocity into a bridal carry, and hopped back on his disc before zooming through the clear skies of Dakota.

* * *

Static set Velocity down on the springy couch in the gas station. The yellow clad heroine groaned and turned over on her side in her sleep. Static sat back in a chair and only had a few moments before he heard the gas station door open and Richie's foot steps.

"What am I supposed to come all the way down here for? We were supposed to be at Ellie's 20 minutes ago." Richie reminded him as he stepped in.

"Uh, I think we've got some bigger problems." Static admitted. Richie furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and then he caught sight of Velocity passed out on the couch.

"Why is Velocity unconscious on the sofa?" Richie questioned.

"Well… Hotstreak completely thrashed her and I couldn't just leave her there. Someone could have unmasked her." Static shrugged.

"Well was it a head injury? Does she have to go to the hospital?" Richie asked as he bent over closer and his fingers brushed the side of her head. Immediately pale bony finger wrapped themselves around Richie's wrist as the heroine gasped awake.

"What are you doing?!" She questioned quickly.

"Uh… I was just checking to make sure you weren't hit in the head… please don't kill me." Richie said uneasily because Velocity was still gripping his wrist, rather tightly.

"Of course I won't kill you." Velocity said and released the blonds arm. "Where am I?" she questioned.

"Uh… The Abandoned Gas Station Of Solitude." Virgil informed her. She sat up and took a look around.

"Huh, I guess it beats Candyland…" Velocity shrugged.

"Candyland?"

"It's my hardcore lair."

"Hardcore lair?"

"It's my finished basement where I take care of all my superhero nonsense."

"And you call it Candyland?"

"What better way to thwart villains from raiding my hardcore lair? They see a sign that says Candyland and just assume it's a game closet." Velocity questioned as though it made all the sense in the world.

"Right… weird. But you seem to be okay now, so…!" Static motioned for the door. Velocity tilted her head curiously.

"Why'd ya save me Static?" she questioned.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"You saved me… and I am curious. You secretly wanna be best friends, don't you? How great is that! Oh, we can give each other fashion tips. Like I gotta say, your costume could definitely use some more pastels." She commented.

"You could use some better fighting skills, you know considering the fact Hotstreak took you down so easily."

"Oh you're back into denial of your deep burning fondness towards me?"

"What are you even talking about?!"

"Just face it Static, you've grown attached to me."

"No I have not!"

"Have too!"

"Have not!"

"Have-"

"Guys!" Richie interrupted. The two heroes ceased their bickering and looked at Richie. "Check out the news!" They both turned and stared as a news reporter came on the screen.

"_In what appears to be a bleak day for Dakota we've had two Bang Baby attacks. The first was by the infamous Hotstreak at a local park, Static and Velocity were on the scene and took down the fiery meta-human within a few moments. Unfortunately, there was also a jailbreak on the other side of Dakota, and the Bang Babies Shiv and Talon escaped from lock-" _Static turned off the television with a look of realization on his face.

"Hotstreak was a distraction… Ebon used it to break Shiv and Talon out." He stated.

"Damn it!" Velocity stomped her foot, "I hate being tricked."

"What is Ebon planning?" Static asked.

"I don't know, but he told me that I should watch my back… and I'm getting kinda freaked." Richie admitted.

"Don't worry man, Ebon wouldn't come after you." Static comforted and put a hand on his back. Velocity was quiet her eyes looking out the window.

"Maybe he will…" Velocity said.

"You sure know how to console someone." Static snapped.

"Ebon said that Richie is an asset to us…" Velocity recalled, "Maybe he's gonna try and find out about Static and Velocity _through_ him…" she said grabbing the front of Richie's shirt. Richie's blue eyes were fearful.

"What do you mean? Like kidnap and torture?" Static asked. Richie's eyes widened even farther.

"I don't think he would kidnap him, we would definitely notice that. Maybe he would spy on him."

"Hey, you guys can really stop trying to calm me down, because I've reached a whole new level of freaking out." Richie informed them.

"I'm just saying, he could try and find out if you're hanging out with Static… you know underneath the mask." Velocity motioned to his face, "He could narrow it down to all of Richie's tall, dark, and dreadlock haired friends… which consist of Virgil and…" Velocity froze and muttered, "Virgil?"

Both Static and Richie tensed and looked at each other then back to Velocity.

"Virgil!" Velocity got to her feet, "Oh my God! You're Virgil Hawkins!"

"Wha… who is that? I've no idea, who that is…" Static mumbled in defense. Velocity sped over in front of him and ripped his mask off his face.

"I knew it!" Velocity yelled. Virgil's hands moved to his bare face and he looked at her in shook.

"Whoa! I saved you from having some scum press member unmask you in the middle of the park and you just go ahead and snatch mine off my face?! How is that fair?" Virgil growled.

"Guess it isn't." Velocity said as she took off her mask. Virgil and Richie's jaws dropped.

"Ellie?" they questioned in unison.

"Yep."

"You're Velocity?" Virgil asked.

"Yep."

"Oh my God… Richie are you a superhero too?!" Virgil turned around and interrogated.

"Uh… no… bro, I'm pretty sure I'm not." (A/N: Haha he absolutely is and he just doesn't know it yet!) Richie stated.

"Hey guys, can we discuss this further in Candyland?" Ellie questioned. Virgil and Richie both turned to her with looks of confusion on their faces.

"…why?" Richie finally asked.

"Because we can order a pizza and Candyland doesn't smell like… an abandoned gas station." Ellie stated.

"Fine… we can go to Candyland." Virgil agreed.

"Sweet!"

* * *

**Okay so it's all out in the open now. And I am sorry about the totally anticlimactic discovery of their secret identities. It was the only thing I could roll with. And the whole Ebon stalking Richie deal is very similar to the Gear episode. That was also the only thing I could think of. **

**Don't be shy, hit that review button :D**


	8. This Is For Real

**Well guys, thank you for the exquisite reviews. **

**So this chapter is being posted all the way from Hampton Beach. I'm on vacation with my family and I finished this chapter while laying on the beach, it was very nice. So now I'm at Jumpin Jacks Java (awesome name right?) drinking my strawberry banana smoothie and raping their free wi-fi. **

**So without further adieu, here is Chapter Eight.**

"**I had some nightmares clawing at my skin and bones, I nearly did explode. You smoked the demons, gave me back my feelings now I am good to go." –This Is For Real, Motion City Soundtrack**

* * *

Candyland was not a very intimidating room at all. The wood door that separated the outside world from the finished basement had a sign written in blue glitter glue. "Candyland!" was written in a three year olds handwriting. The inside was even less threatening. The "hardcore lair" consisted of a futon, a mini-fridge and a small television set. So the three teenagers were all sitting on the light blue rug eating a sausage and onion pizza as the small television set played the news softly. Virgil kept his attention on the television and whenever his eyes did wander he made sure to keep them anywhere but Ellie's face. And it would be a hard task to accomplish even if he did want to. Ellie's attention was either on the ground or on the piece of pizza in her hand. Richie was beginning to get annoyed with the two's situation.

"Oh come on guys, can't you still be friends? And superheroes?" Richie came between the two and questioned.

"I'm sorry, I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that sweet, smart Virgil Hawkins is _actually_ showboating, sarcastic Static." Ellie said as she sat back in her couch.

"Well, _I'm_ surprised that perky, hyperactive Ellie Covelli is _actually_… huh… actually I'm not surprised at all." Virgil stated.

"Okay, okay this isn't what we expected! But this is good, I mean we can all get along now right?" Richie mediated, the two were still silent and giving each other awkward stares. "Oh come on! You were fine when you guys had no idea that you two were bang baby."

"Hey… how are _you_ a bang baby? You can't have been here when the big bang happened because you lived in New York." Virgil questioned.

"I wasn't. I've had my powers since I was 2 years old." Ellie admitted, "I was in a lab accident right here in Dakota."

"Alva Industries, I bet."

"My parents were both scientists for Alva and one day I went with them to work or something, they asked a friend to watch me, but he didn't and I ended up on the receiving side of an experiment. Ever since I've been able to run… really fast." Ellie explained.

"That's all you remember?" Virgil questioned skeptically.

"I was two, I could have spent 45 minutes in a microwave on high for all I know. And once the door opened I'd just come out and ask for my Care Bear. I don't remember anything…" she sighed, "I don't feel like talking about this anymore… can we get back to Ebon's diabolical plans?"

"Well… he probably broke Shiv and Talon out because he's planning something. He'll need friends to pull it off…" Static said.

"Why would he need more people to follow me around? The last thing he would want is to attract attention to himself." Richie questioned.

"Well he might not be after you. We're not ruling it out, because that comment was suspicious. But he could be up to some other type of hooliganism."

"We need Hotstreak." Virgil stated. The two blonds snapped their heads in his direction with perplexed expressions.

"He was the distraction which means Ebon must have him in on it. If we find him maybe we'll find Ebon." Virgil reminded them. Ellie considered it for a moment and then stood up.

"Good idea! Think the cops will let us question him?" Ellie asked.

"Maybe… I mean we're the ones who subdued him in the first place." Virgil stated,

"Eh, hey guys? There's a minor problem about that plan…" Richie informed them without even looking in their direction, his eyes fixated on something else.

"What minor problem?" Ellie asked.

"Hotstreak is no longer in police custody." Richie pointed to the television set. Both Ellie and Virgil groaned, they didn't even need to hear the news report the image of a truck on it's side with a partially melted hole was all they needed to see.

"Now what are we going to do?" Ellie groaned.

"We'll have to find him… somehow." Virgil sighed, "How about we split up? I'll take the north side of the city, Ellie can take the west side, Richie can take the east side, if we haven't found him yet, we'll all look in the south side together." Virgil conducted. Ellie immediately jumped to her feet.

"Sounds like a plan, I'm on it." Ellie stated and there was a blur as she ran out of the room and the wind blew back any papers in the room. Virgil and Richie barely had a millisecond to look at each other and then back to the door before she sped back into the room. "Which way is the west side?" she asked. Virgil smacked his forehead when he remembered that Ellie was still fairly new to the city and she didn't know where anything was.

"Okay change of plans, I'll cover the north and west side, Richie take Ellie with you to the east side and then we'll check back in an hour."

"But I'll go faster if I'm by myself." Ellie protested.

"That won't help if you get lost. And if you're with Richie, then I think you should probably be out of costume. I mean the less Velocity and Static talk to him, the better." Virgil informed her.

"Good point…" Ellie crossed her arms with a pout, unhappy with the decision but she agreed with it regardless.

"Okay then, off we go." Virgil stated.

* * *

"I can't believe you're Velocity, this feels like the Twilight Zone or something." Richie stated as the two teenagers were walking through the grimy streets of the east side of Dakota.

"Uh nope, this is for real." Ellie assured him as she idly kicked a soda can so it was launched five feet in front of them. When they reached it again Richie quickly bent over and picked it up before Ellie could kick it again. Then he put it in a trash can to the left of them. The two walked in sync and Ellie elbowed Richie when she spotted a pool bar. They had checked about 15 of them in search of the infamous Hotstreak. They approached the doors as casually as possible and when they entered the strong scent of strong alcohol and cigarettes burned their eyes. A few of the older bikers looked at them but then they just returned to their drinks or pool table and ignored their presence. The bartender gave them a suspicious look, knowing that the both of them were clearly under 21. Ellie approached him, with Richie behind her.

"Hiya, we're looking for a meta-human by the name of Hotstreak. You seen him?" Ellie declared. The bartender gave her an almost frightened look and almost knocked over a bottle of tequila in his nervousness.

"Um… no… never heard of him." The bartender stuttered uneasily. Ellie gave him a look and pointed up to the television screen mounted on the wall behind him. The news had flashed a picture of the fiery meta-human with the name Hotstreak in big bold letters. The bartender looked back to Ellie, "Oh! You meant that guy!"

"Uh huh." Ellie nodded with a fake amused smile on her face as if she was talking to a four year old.

"No he doesn't come around here…" the bartender stated.

"Then where _does_ he hang around?" Ellie questioned, the bartender remained quiet and Ellie leaned a little closer and brought her tone very low, "Look were drowning here, just throw us a lifeline we won't say we learned it from you."

"I'm sorry, I can't help you." The bartender stated after a long pause. Ellie groaned and backed off from the counter.

"Come on Richie." She pulled at his sleeve as she headed for the door. Once they were out in of the bar and in a secluded alley, Ellie kicked a wall with annoyance.

"Ugh! We've checked every bar in this city. Where the hell is Hotstreak?" Ellie asked the skies in anger. Richie put his hand under his chin as he pondered the situation, his back touched the wall and he leaned against it.

"Well, if you were Hotstreak, and you had to dodge the cops, you'd probably be hanging out in very Un-Hotstreak like places." Richie stated simply. Ellie's hand now rubbed her chin as she thought about this.

"So… what's the opposite of a pool bar?" Ellie questioned. Richie paused for a moment.

"An AA meeting?" Richie shrugged stupidly unsure of what to say. Ellie gave a small laugh at the answer, but then she paused as she thought about it and her face grew serious.

"Hmmm… maybe…" Ellie said. Richie gave her a weird look.

"Meta-humans, hanging out an AA meeting? I was just thinking off the top of my head." He admitted.

"Free snacks and coffee, I mean most those meta-humans are on the street with no food. They could even find possible recruits… let's check one out." Ellie stated and pulled on Richie's sleeve again as they exited the alleyway.

It wasn't difficult for them to find an AA meeting, there was an orange flyer on a church billboard and finding the location was even less difficult. The difficult part was ignoring the stares from all the middle aged drinkers boring into them. It made both of them feel really self conscious and Richie put up his hoodie at one point. Ellie grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to avoid the stares from everyone as they took a seat.

"This is so awkward." Ellie whispered.

"Are you seeing any meta-humans?" Richie asked.

"No." Ellie stated as she buried her face into his sweatshirt, "Just overly depressed middle aged drunks."

"That's not nice." Richie reprimanded. He was slightly surprised at the girl's spiteful words; it wasn't very Ellie-like.

"I'm sorry, I just have no pity for these people." She stated.

"Why not?"

"Because they let themselves get like this, they could have stopped anytime they liked but they didn't. So they deserve the hardship."

"That's sort of… heartless." Richie said.

"My friend had a drunk for a dad, he beat her up for 10 years and then tried to kill her... she's lucky to be alive after that situation." Ellie sighed.

"Well you can't generalize everyone with one violent event, most of these people are just people who got a little lost along the way, they just had poor self control, they realized it, and now they are trying to get better." Richie stated. Ellie looked up from his sweatshirt and locked eyes for a moment.

"You have a really generous nature…" she stated before resting her head back on his shoulder, "I like it, it's really pleasant." Richie tensed and his language was pretty much reduced to vowels as she snuggled closer into his shoulder.

"Oh… ya…I…do…tha…" Richie began, but Ellie wasn't really paying attention.

"I'm not really seeing any meta-humans, I'm thinkin we should maybe chalk this one up as an epic fail and catch up with Static?" Ellie suggested. Richie nodded and the two stood up. They tried to exit as nonchalant as they could, but a lot of the attention was brought to them as they tried to exit during someone's speech. So they sat down back down in different seats and waited for Kimberly Duncan to finish. When she did, there was a small applause.

"Come on, let's make a break for it." Ellie stated. The two teenagers got back up and pushed their way through the crowd as gently as they could. Ellie's hand wrapped around the door handle when she heard the next speakers words.

"Uh hi." The familiar voice stated, she turned around with her mouth open in shock when she saw who had replaced Kimberly at the podium, "My name is Peter Covelli and I'm an alcoholic." Her brother stated.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Richie asked. The two blondes were sitting across from each other in Burger Fool. They had radioed Static when they got out of the meeting and he was on his way to meet them. Ellie hadn't touched her soda but she nodded regardless.

"I'm fine." She went to go and take a sip of her soda. But she stopped mid sip and let out a frustrated growl and she banged her fist on the table "Okay, I'm not fine! Why wouldn't he tell me?!"

"Well maybe he could have had his reasons." Richie tried consoling, but Ellie wasn't buying it.

"He has no problem asking a whole bunch of random strangers for help, but when it comes to me, he can't even tell me he has a problem?" Ellie stated.

"Well you said yourself, you're not the most sensitive person on the matter." Richie reminded her.

"Oh, he's my brother! I could have mustered up some compassion and he knows it." Ellie said, "You know everything makes sense now. He didn't wanna go to college, because he'd be too tempted to drink at parties. He totally freaked on me that time I came home smelling like alcohol because he doesn't want me making his mistakes… ugh! Why didn't he just tell me?! I wouldn't have been such a bitch about that whole situation if I had known." Ellie moaned in frustration.

"I swear there is some kind of an abysmal black cloud filled with unfortunate fate and bad luck, it likes to skip behind me and try and ruin my cheery disposition. 'Oh you're enjoying life? Poof! Now you're dad has a job at Alva Industries and you have to move back to Dakota! Oh you made a friend? Poof! Now he's a superhero! Oh you're starting to get along with your brother? Poof! Now he's an alcoholic and you're harshing his getting better process! Oh you're ready to-"

"Ellie you're ranting…"

"I'm having a bad day! I'm entitled to a moment where I don't have to be all happy and optimistic!" Ellie moped as she dropped her torso on to the table. She sunk her head into the cradle her arms had created.

Richie doubted she would stay silent for very long. And he was right, and she lifted her head in under two seconds.

"And another thing! I always feel like I'm living a double life. Ellie and Velocity. But ever since we've been in Dakota, both my worlds have just collided in the worst way. Peter was in that bank hostage situation and Velocity had to save him. Velocity shouldn't have anything to do with Peter, he's apart of Ellie's world. And today! I mean apart from family, there's only one person in this universe that knows Velocity is really Ellie Covelli. And that number just moved up to three! Slowly but surely, Velocity and I are beginning to fuse into one person, and that will put everyone around me in danger." She said in hyperspeed mode. She hung her head again morbidly.

1.5 seconds of silence…

"I mean what was I supposed to do? I had to tell you guys. Virgil was right. It wasn't fair that I got to know his identity and he had absolutely nothing. I mean it's not like I would ever go to the media with his identity but I mean he didn't know what I was like underneath the mask. I didn't worry him like that. What was I supposed to do?!" she questioned before hiding her face for the third time.

1 second of silence…

"I'm sorry! I'm scaring you, aren't I? When I'm upset I go into psycho babble mode. I hardly ever get so upset so this is kind of a rare occurrence. Man, you probably think I'm just some extremely over dramatic high school girl…" Ellie moped.

"Well I've known you for about a week and I'm pretty sure you're not an over dramatic high school girl. It's okay to vent, I'm a good listener. And quite obliviously you don't have anyone to talk to about this kind of thing, besides family and the… one other person in the universe?"

"My best friend… who's actually practically family so I don't think she counts." Ellie stated looking up at the ceiling, "Richie, I'm sorry I'm talking your ear off."

"Like I said it's okay. I'm a good listener." Richie assured her. Ellie looked down from the ceiling and her pasty blue eyes flickered over to his. They stared at each other for a few moments, before the sound of the door jingling and Virgil entering made them both look away awkwardly.

"Hey guys." Virgil stated as he sat down next to Richie.

"We got absolutely nothing." Ellie announced as she took a sip of her soda.

"Yeah I basically got nothing too." Virgil informed them grimly.

"This is kind of a bummer. What do we do now? It's getting kind of late." She reminded them, the last time she had checked her watch it was nearly 11:30.

"I guess we'll have to call it a night. We'll figure things out tomorrow morning." Virgil stated. Ellie sighed feeling kind of defeated, Richie nodded as well. "Come on, I bet we can catch a bus if we leave now." Virgil stated. Ellie collected her soda and decided to accompany the two boys even though it was more convenient to run home in the blink of an eye.

Virgil was the first stop and that left Richie and Ellie alone for the majority of the trip. When they eventually got into their neighborhood, the two teenagers exited and began their small walk.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Richie asked just before they reached his house, "Ya know, with the whole Peter situation?"

"Yeah… I'm not gonna confront him about it or anything, I mean he'll come to me when he decides to." Ellie said.

"That's good, don't get yourself too worked up about it though, he seems like a good guy, I'm sure he'll pull himself up alright." Richie assured her.

"Awe thank you Richie." She smiled and hugged him for giving her additional confidence in her brother. When the small hug ended Richie waved before starting to head for his door, Ellie then called after him, "I'll see you in the morning then-" Ellie froze mid sentence when she spotted Richie's empty driveway, "Where are your parents?" Richie turned around from his walkway and his eyes followed her gaze to the vacant driveway.

"Oh, my dad's still on his business trip and my mom is away visiting my aunt." Richie informed her.

"Well… this just isn't going to work." She stated.

"What are you talking about?"

"A psychotic shadowy meta-human might be after you, you are so totally not sleeping alone. I'm definitely not going to wake up just to discover that you've been kidnapped during the middle of the night. Oh heck no. You're spending the night here." Ellie insisted.

"Oh… no, you don't have to put me up for the night… I could just go to Virgil's." Richie stated. Ellie's arms folded.

"What makes you think walking across the city at midnight is any safer than sleeping by yourself?" Ellie asked. Richie paused for a moment before giving in.

"You're dad would allow this?" Richie asked.

"Oh my dad would be absolutely cool with it. But we're not going to tell him…" she said.

"Why not?"

"Because he wouldn't be cool with it if your parent's weren't cool with it, and your parent's _aren't_ cool with it, so we won't even give him a chance to not be cool with the fact your parent's aren't cool with it. You cool with this?" Ellie stated in half a breath.

"Yeah, I think I'm following you…" Richie said slowly.

"Well okay then. Go pack a bag and come on." Ellie motioned for him to continue his journey up his walkway. Richie obeyed and entered his house swiftly. He quickly ran up to his room and shoved an outfit for the morning and a toothbrush in his backpack traveling as lightly as he could. He then rejoined Ellie at the beginning of his walkway where she waited for him. It was once they were in the Covelli residence, that Richie began to feel uncomfortable with the plan.

"Won't your dad find me and be upset that I slept here without any permission?" Richie asked beginning to think that this was a bad idea more and more.

"No silly. My dad works the night shift. He won't be back until 11 in the morning and I'm usually awake and running way before that." Ellie informed him.

"Oh… okay. Well where am I sleeping then? The couch?"

"You're gonna sleep in Candyland tonight, so that way Pete won't stumble across you and rat us out to my dad."

"Wow… I've never seen this deceitful side of your personality before." Richie said.

"Oh shut up, it's very rare that I chose to be devious and underhanded." Ellie grinned, "Go and get yourself set up in the basement." She ordered. Richie went down the hallway and down the stairs until he met the door with the sign "Candyland" tacked on it. Richie pushed passed it and entered the hardcore lair where he dropped his bag in the corner of the room and kicked off his shoes while he was at it. He looked over at the black futon and decided to pull it out in to a bed. The frame was stubborn at first, making it difficult for Richie. But eventually the metal creaked as the futon flattened into a bed. Richie gave a small smile victoriously as he lay down on the newly made bed.

"Oh goody you saved me the trouble." Ellie announced from the doorway. Richie felt heat rush to his face when he saw Ellie reappear wearing a black tank top with a lace trim and a pair of plaid shorts revealing her very long legs. Ellie tossed him a pillow and then placed another pillow on the end of the small futon bed. Richie looked back up in confusion.

"…you're sleeping here too?" he asked feeling himself flush a little darker.

"Well duh, the whole point of you sleeping here is so I can keep an eye on you. That's kind of hard to do when you're two flights of stairs bellow me." Ellie said as she laid down on the bed next to him. She rolled over on her back indifferently and faced the ceiling, while Richie remained laying down on his stomach tensely. Having her accidentally fall asleep in his bed and take a small nap was one thing, but this seemed like a little too much for him to handle. _'This would be easier if she wasn't so… so... Gah!.'_ Richie thought to himself as he looked away from her unblemished face.

"Night Richie, don't let the bed bugs bite." Ellie said in a sing song voice as she reached above her head and flicked off the light. Richie laid there for a few minutes, growing more anxious by the second. He considered just leaving and calling the whole co-ed sleepover off, but then a cool mint scent dared him to leave. Ellie's mouth parted and her recently brushed teeth glimmered in the darkness, she mumbled something in her half-sleep state. He could have sworn it was 'Stay'. So stay he did.

"Night Ellie…" he said quietly.

* * *

**Bada Bing! This concludes Chapter Eight. **

**And damn, those kids really need to stop getting into bed together ;)**

**And you now know why Peter was so angry at Ellie in Chapter Four.**

**And I think you're cool.**

**And I think you're even cooler if you review.**

**:D**


	9. Do It Alone

**Hey guys, I haven't updated in a while and that's kind of lame of me. So I apologize for my lameness.**

**But thank you for the reviews, you're all too kind :)**

"**We can dance in your bedroom with no romance, I got time just to waste if you would be my new escape."-Do It Alone, Sugarcult**

* * *

"Well Ebon our little friend Richie Foley was quite busy yesterday. He spent most his time with this blond girl Eleanor Covelli." Talon pointed to a screen where a video tape showed Richie and Ellie walking down the street together, "They spent most their time going into all different kinds of bars, kinda seemed like they were looking for someone. They met up with another guy a few times, his name is Virgil Hawkins." Talon explained pointing to the screen again as it showed Virgil walking into Burger Fool. "Looks like Static don't he? And the girl looks like she could be Velocity. They've both got the right hair, the right build and the wrong friends." Talon said with an evil smirk, hoping that Ebon was pleased.

"Not bad, Talon. Not bad at all." Ebon stood up, "I want you to try and dig a little deeper, I want to be as sure as sure can be, before we pull this off. Because odds are we might end up in jail afterwards, and I'm not going back to jail without giving Static and Velocity what they deserve." Ebon stated. Talon's lips moved to one side and she took flight. She soared through the skies and headed for the last place she had seen Richie enter before she went to go get sleep.

* * *

Unlike the last time the two had fallen asleep together, Ellie was the first one to wake up. She rolled off the bed as stealthy as she could manage so she didn't wake Richie up. Although there wasn't a need to use so much effort, the blond boy was sleeping like a rock. She exited Candyland and decided to start getting ready for the day. The house was silent and empty at this time in the morning. Peter usually slept in and Malcolm worked the night shift so the mornings were usually quiet until her father returned. Ellie was used to being the first one up and the last one down, so the silence was very normal to her.

After a pleasant shower, Ellie threw on a T-shirt and jeans. She watched some television until it was around nine, when she decided to start heading down into the kitchen to make some breakfast. She stopped at the doorframe when she caught sight of her brother. He didn't really notice her, he seemed to be in a hurry as he threw some Eggos in the toaster and impatiently scurried around the kitchen. Ellie hadn't talked to him since before the meeting, and he didn't know that she knew he was an alcoholic. This caused Ellie to feel a little uneasy as she slowly walked into the kitchen where her brother was bustling around. He grabbed the coffee mug and took a quick sip.

"Ellie, do you know when dad is getting back?" Peter quickly asked.

"Not until 11." Ellie answered quietly. She was still cautious of her brother, so she tip toed around him like he was made of glass. He was unaware of his sister's strange behavior and began to frantically try and fix his appearance.

"UGH! I needed him to fix my tie! What am I supposed to do now?" Peter sighed. Ellie put her hands on his shoulders.

"You should relax." Ellie said, she moved her fingers across the fabric of the tie as she expertly maneuvered it into a Windsor knot. She tightened it so he could still breathe but still high enough to make a good impression. She patted it down and then she adjusted his jacket so it was straight. Peter looked down curiously and finally realized she was definitely more quiet than usual.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked. Ellie nodded and smiled very softly.

"Pete, you know I love you, right?" Ellie looked down at the floor for a moment and added, "You know that even though I give you crap about college and stuff, I still love you... right?"

"Yeah… I love you too…" Peter asked, "You're not planning on committing suicide are you?" he joked.

"No... I just love you, you're a great brother." Ellie looked up from the blue tile kitchen floor and asked. "How are you feeling about a brother sister hug transaction right about now?"

Peter gave a small half amused half confused laugh and gave her a weird look before saying, "Yeah, I'm receptive to it, I guess." The second the words left his lips Ellie trapped him in a tight hug. Peter looked down at the top of his sister's head which barely reached his shoulders, and he gingerly returned the hug. "Man, something really is wrong, isn't it?" Peter asked. Ellie shook her head.

"It's nothing for you to worry about it," Ellie gave him a small kiss before retreating to the cabinets to pull out pancake mix. Peter wasn't falling for his sister's excuse and he circled her suspiciously.

"What happened with your friends last night? I thought you were going to be using the living room." Peter asked as Ellie began to cut up some fresh fruit for the pancakes.

"Nothing happened, we just went out instead." Ellie stated.

"Hmmm..." Peter hummed as he sat up on the counter he continued with his bird like stare.

"What's "hmmm" supposed to mean?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing I guess…" Peter sighed looking up at the ceiling in attempt to build up Ellie's curiosity.

"What are you getting at? Just come out and say it." His sister challenged. Peter drummed his fingers and gave a small smirk.

"Well it's just you're acting a little differently… like quiet, but content. And sometimes people can act like that after they've had a _good_ night…" Peter shrugged. Ellie scoffed as her jaw dropped.

"Get you're mind out of the gutter perv, nothing happened." Ellie waved her finger at him, "Sheesh… you're something Pete. I can't even say something nice without being accused of getting laid." Ellie shook her head, Peter chuckled.

"Okay fine, you'll get away with it this time. Even though I bet the neighbor boy is still upstairs hiding in your room." Peter joked.

"Oh no, that's way too cliché, I hid him in Candyland." Ellie grinned. Peter just rolled his eyes.

"The lame finished basement you call your lair? How romantic." He said

"Hey, it's my_ hardcore_ lair. Get it right." Ellie scoffed.

"Haha whatever you say. I have to get to this job interview." Peter stated, "I'll talk to you later." He said as he rushed out the kitchen.

"Good luck." Ellie called after him. Once she finished with the strawberry banana pancakes and bacon she left two plates on the kitchen table and pranced down to the basement to go and wake up Richie. He was still passed out, but he had rolled over on his side in his sleep. Ellie grinned as she sat down on the bed next to him.

"Good morning sunshine! The Earth says hello!" Ellie rubbed Richie's shoulder and he startled awake. He looked up and around at the unfamiliar setting and remembered he had spent the night in Candyland last night. He looked up at Ellie, she gave him a small smile as he yawned and covered his eyes from the small amount of light that managed to leak into the basement.

"What time is it?" Richie asked tiredly.

"It's 9:30." She informed him.

"9:30? Man, when did you wake up?"

"5:00."

"5:00?! Are you insane?"

"I have an internal alarm clock." Ellie shrugged, "I made some breakfast. So you need to come eat before it gets cold." She ordered.

"Okay I'll probably get dressed first though." Richie agreed as he kicked off the blanket and sat up. He reached into his bag and pulled out the two things he had packed. Richie tugged on his khakis over the red plaid boxers he had slept in. When he looked up he saw Ellie stare for a moment before looking away quickly. Richie could swear he saw a bit of pink enter her cheeks. He pulled on his hoodie over his white undershirt and when his head poked out, Ellie had returned to normal.

"Hope you like strawberry banana pancakes!" she declared as she led him out of Candyland and up the stairs.

"Um… sure I guess." Richie said, truthfully he had never had these pancakes before, but it sounded unique.

"Great, why don't you call Virgil and get him over here? I made extra." Ellie informed him.

"Yeah, okay." Richie said as he pulled the Shock Vox out of his pocket, "Richie to Virgil, come in." he said. Ellie giggled and Richie paused to see the blond girl with her lips rolled in and curved into a slight smile, "Something funny?" Richie had to ask.

"It's nothing." She said, but then she failed to repress her laughter and she let out a tiny laugh, "It's just really cute when you guys talk 'radio' with each other."

"O-kay," Richie shrugged and resumed his attempt to contact Virgil, "Hey Virgil it's Richie are you awake yet?"

"Oh no, no, no, no I didn't mean to cramp your style, you can go back to your radio jargon." Ellie insisted as she took a bite of pancake, the grin remaining on her face. Richie rolled his eyes and tried a bite of his own pancake. It was a different taste, but it wasn't bad. He decided he liked it. Halfway through their breakfast together Virgil contacted them and they decided to meet at the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude. But Ellie insisted on doing the dishes first to lighten her father's work load. So they eventually exited the house, blissfully unaware of Talon perched on a near by roof and watching them with a video camera. She flew overhead, but she tried to keep to the shadows so she wouldn't draw attention to herself. Richie and Ellie ended up at the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude around 10:30. Virgil was on the couch with his mask off as he sipped a soda while he waited for them.

"Okay, for the record I think we'll have to do all future business dealings in Candyland because I was not kidding when I said this place smelled bad." Ellie informed them.

"Oh leave it alone, do you have any idea how difficult it was to find a place for our headquarters?" Virgil asked.

"What's the matter? Couldn't build a tree house?" Ellie mocked.

"Okay children, let's mature a little bit so we can formulate a plan." Richie requested.

"I thought our plan was to find Hotstreak." Ellie asked as she took a seat next to Virgil on the sofa.

"Well the thing about Hotstreak is; he's a felon the run, and if he doesn't wanna be found he won't be." Richie informed her.

"Okay what's Plan B?" Ellie asked. Virgil and Richie looked at each other and then back to Ellie before shrugging. "We _really_ don't have a Plan B? Come on guys, even villains come up with a Plan B."

"Well why don't you come up with a plan for a change?" Virgil asked.

"Why don't you come up with a decent comeback instead of just changing the subject for a change?" Ellie snapped. Richie sighed and pinched the bone between his eyes, the two heroes were backtracking rather than moving their friendship forward.

"Guys, can't we all just…?" Richie started.

"You are so annoying! Even your costume is loud and obnoxious!"

"What's wrong with my costume?! Yours is the one that's all mellow and depressing, kinda like your personality."

"I am not mellow and depressing! You're just overly perky and…"

"That's it!" Richie declared as he stood up, both Ellie and Virgil silenced and stared at the fuming blond boy, "I'm done playing mediator with you two! You're at each other's throats constantly and I can't take it anymore. Work together or work apart, I'm going to get a milkshake, make your decision before I get back." He ordered as he grabbed his coat and walked out of The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude. Ellie and Virgil both stared at the door, slightly awed at the out of character frustration displayed from Richie. But after a few moments their eyes met the floor and they both kept their arms crossed. The silence lasted for a minute before Ellie couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm sorry I made fun of your headquarters." Ellie eventually blurted out. Virgil paused for a moment, not ready to apologize, but then he ultimately gave up.

"I'm sorry I called you annoying." Virgil sighed.

"I'm sorry I called you a feminine egocentric nark."

"…when did you call me that?"

"It was behind your back, but I'm sorry anyway." Ellie admitted quietly.

"I guess it's okay." Virgil shrugged.

"We've kinda been acting silly, I mean we don't have to be best friends but we don't have to hate each other either."

"Yeah, and I mean we're near adulthood, if we can't fake a smile and be pleasant with someone, then we'll never make it in the cooperate world."

"Well said." Ellie extended a hand, "Truce?"

"Truce." Virgil gave in with a small smile and took her hand.

"Well at least your man lover will be happy now…"

"My man lover? How can you say that when he's clearly your meat puppet."

"Oh, I get why you've been all standoffish, I infiltrated your territory and I pose a threat to you. When Blondie went on his PMS rampage, he didn't even take your side. But you don't have to worry, I'm not after your man."

"You couldn't have him if you tried girlfriend." Virgil snapped his fingers in a mocking way. Ellie giggled and a smile remained on her face, before getting slightly serious.

"So, what are we going to do about Ebon? I feel uneasy about this whole mess." Ellie asked. Virgil frowned.

"I don't know, they're all laying low, I mean there's been no meta-human action on the news since yesterday."

"Well maybe if we both lay low, we can lull them into a false sense of security and they'll come on out."

"Or we could go out looking for them, there are a million places we haven't looked. They're fond of rundown juvenile halls."

"Whaddaya think they're planning?" Ellie mused out loud, "I mean from what I've seen, they're like me, they have too much pent up energy to stay put and hide. What could be worth that kind of agonizing torture?"

"Most likely the destruction of Static and Velocity." Virgil said. They both sighed.

"We're back to square one, you realize that right?" Ellie asked as she paced the room.

"We never checked the south side, we can start there…" Virgil suggested. But the sound of the door hitting the wall made them both jump and stare at the door. Richie ran in panting.

"What happened?! Are you being chased?" Ellie gasped. He shook his head as he tried to catch his breath.

"Is it Ebon?" Virgil questioned. Richie shook his head again.

"Just… saw… Hotstreak… ran back… as fast… as I could." Richie said in between breaths.

"Great! Where is he?!"

"Follow me!" Richie said and resumed a jog and turned around so the others could follow him. They had ran a few blocks before reaching the alleyway Richie had seen Hotstreak in. The door had a giant melted hole and the three teens stepped into the dark warehouse. It was completely empty.

"He can't have gotten too far. I'll go see if I can catch him." Ellie said, speeding away and leaving the two boys alone in the warehouse. Richie looked around curiously, and found something in the corner of his eye. He went over and picked up what appeared to be a red stick off the dusty warehouse floor.

"Hey V, check this." Richie tossed him the red cylinder. Virgil inspected thoroughly and found a long wick.

"Dynamite? Hotstreak stole an entire warehouse filled with dynamite?" Virgil said.

"Well that doesn't spell out trouble or anything…" Richie said sarcastically.

"I don't like the looks of this." Virgil sighed as his back slid down against the wall and he sat down. He agreed with Ellie, this whole situation made him feel uneasy too. The time when Ebon had used Richie to try and get to Static had made him worried and even partially guilty, that his friend had been put in that kind of danger. He looked over at Richie, and wished that his friend had a mask to hide behind. This was a mess. Ellie sped in and pressed a hand against the wall to hold herself up. She panted.

"No…sign…of him…" she said in syllables through her panting breath. Richie looked at her curiously.

"You're actually tired? I thought running was cake for you." Richie asked.

"Well… I just searched… down every alley… every nook and cranny… within a 200 mile radius of here… kind of exhausting…" Ellie panted, "Even for me."

"I see… well he cleaned out this entire place." Richie's arms flapped to his sides frustrated.

"What'd he take?" Ellie breathed.

"Dynamite… and lot's of it." Virgil answered.

"Yeah, well there's no way he did this whole thing by himself and that only confirms that he's working with Ebon." Richie responded.

"Talk about a dream team." Ellie let out a loud groan. A loud buzzing interrupted their conversation and Virgil pulled a small metallic device. He pressed a button and sighed.

"My pops just paged me, he needs me at the center, you guys gonna come with?" Virgil asked.

"Wait, you _guys_…? Does that mean that you two are-" Richie started with a wide grin on his face.

"Playing nice for the sake of Dakota and Richard Foley's sanity? Yes we are." Ellie finished for him, "And thanks but no thanks, I'm gonna go patrol for a while."

"You're cool to go out by yourself? I mean Hotstreak's armed with dynamite…" Richie said.

"Oh don't worry, I can do it alone. I'm used to it. I'll call you guys if I find anything. Later." She stated and a gust of wind chilled the two boys as she ran passed them.

"Are you guys _really_ playing nice?" Richie turned and asked suspiciously with an eyebrow.

"You make it sound like I've never compromised before." he rolled his eyes, Richie's eyebrow remained perched and Virgil shrugged, "Well there's a first time for everything."

* * *

Ellie tugged off her mask as she exhaustedly trudged into her home. She was sickened to discover that the spandex was clinging to her skin due to the amount of sweat. She _never_ sweat! She hated this whole ordeal and wished she could just solve it already. Ellie collapsed on the stairs, so she was sprawled out. Her knees curled up and she considered taking a nap right then and there until Peter crept over.

"Ellie!" Peter hissed.

"Oh not now Pete, I'm not in the mood to fight with you." Ellie sighed as she sat up on her stair.

"Well get in the mood!" Peter held out the brown bag Richie had packed the night before, "I totally thought you were kidding and then I found this in the basement!" Peter stated, Ellie reached out to take it from him, but he held it out of her reach.

"What we're you doing in Candyland to begin with?" Ellie asked irritably.

"I thought you might be down there. But more importantly what was neighbor boy doing down there?!" Peter asked.

"Look it's not what you're thinking, and give that back." Ellie reached for the bag but Peter held it too high.

"No way! What's stopping me from showing this to dad?" Peter asked.

"The fact that I'm innocent." Ellie stated, "And what makes you think it was Richie anyway?"

"Well besides the fact it contains one of those green hoodies he's so damn fond of, it's so painfully obvious you like the kid."

"Oh shut up Pete, you don't know anything about this situation, so don't assume you do!" Ellie growled.

"Oh please, like_ I_ don't know anything about being a hormonal teenager."

"Look, I was protecting him!"

"Well as glad as I am to hear you use condoms, that's really not the…"

"No not like that! I meant…" Ellie let out a frustrated sigh, "He knows I'm Velocity."

"He knows _what_?!" Peter shouted, "Are you insane woman? You've known the kid for like a week!"

"Well ya know the week ended so I couldn't decide whether or not I should jump into bed with him or tell him I'm a superhero." Ellie said in mocking manner before getting serious, "Are you kidding me Pete? I had no choice! I told him because I had to. You know that shadowy meta-human creep?"

"Yeah, Ebon or something like that."

"Right. Well Ebon is after him. Apparently he spends too much time with superheroes and that makes him look suspicious. His parents are away and I was sure as hell not about to let him spend the night alone. So nothing happened between us, okay? It was strictly business." Ellie said.

"And how do I know you're not lying?"

"Oh please when do I ever lie?"

"Uh… **this morning**!" Peter bellowed.

"No, I clearly said I was hiding him in Candyland, you need to pay closer attention."

"Okay, but if you're intentions were so noble then why bother hiding him?" Peter asked.

"Because Richie's parents would go through the wall if they found out. I wasn't really hiding it from you guys, we we're hiding it from them and in order to do that, I couldn't tell you." Ellie said. Peter growled in aggravation.

"Why do you have to be such a smooth talker? I totally convinced myself you weren't going to get away with this one and now after one conversation with you, I actually believe you."

"No, you believe me because I'm telling the truth. Now fork over the bag." Ellie ordered. Peter just let his face fall into an annoyed expression and he tossed the bag into her awaiting hands. She then threw the bag over one shoulder to hold it in place as she laid back down on the stairs. "I'm glad we had this talk and our trust is reestablished, so now leave me be child." Ellie said as she closed her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked as he realized that she was about to take a nap right on the stairs.

"I'm tired." She responded wearily.

"But you're _never_ tired." Peter said.

"I spent all day running around the city looking under stones for that Ebon creep and I got nothing to show for it…" Ellie sighed.

"Hmmm…" Peter said while rubbing his chin. Ellie groaned and opened her eyes.

"What's your "hmmm" mean _now_?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing I guess." He said his eyes darting to the ceiling.

"Must we go through this again? Just tell me what you're thinking." Ellie asked.

"It just seems like your doing a lot to help this Richie character…" Peter shrugged.

"Is this the part where you accuse me of having sex with him?"

"Nope. I'm just thinkin' that maybe you might be falling in l-"

"Don't you dare say the "L" word." Ellie immediately interrupted him.

"Okay fine… but at least admit you're attracted to him." Peter said. Ellie paused for a moment keeping a cool face as she rolled in her lips. Of course she was attracted to him. She knew that from the moment she met him. He was cute and smart, he had a certain gentile quality that drove Ellie crazy. But she wasn't about to confess this to her annoying older brother. So instead she nervously tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and looked up at the ceiling.

"I hadn't thought about him like that." Ellie lied.

"Oh is that so?" Peter grinned knowing that she was lying, the blond just nodded and he rolled his eyes, "Goodnight sis." He said as he patted her shoulder and walked away. Ellie grinned and turned back on her side so she could fall asleep.

* * *

"So I followed Foley around in the morning. Covelli and him ended up at this gas station at like 10:30, he left alone and he seemed pretty steamed, so instead of watching disgusting teenage drama I snuck into Dakota Union High and dug through their records to see if I could find anything. And here's what sealed the deal for me. Virgil Hawkins: perfect grades, perfect attendance, perfect yatta yatta, all through out middle school and some of freshman year. _Until _the second quarter which is also around the time of the big bang. He drops from all high A's to high B's. And he's got about 29 tardies and 18 early dismissals. At least we can rest knowing that all of Static's meddling takes a toll on his academic record…" Talon said.

"What about Covelli?" Ebon asked.

"I'm getting to that. Covelli just transferred to Dakota Union High from New York. I don't think I have to remind you that New York City is Velocity's old turf." Talon grinned, Ebon was silent for a moment when a subtle chuckle barely managed to escape his throat. He stood up and faced the window.

"Whatcha thinkin boss?" Shiv asked from the couch where he was lazily eating potato chips and watching television.

"I'm thinking we got them." Ebon said, "And I'm thinking that our plan will be executed this Saturday."

* * *

**Bada-Bing.  
****Kind of a filler chapter, cause I haven't updated in a while.  
****The next update won't take so long.  
****And this story is coming to its end very soon.  
****Then, I'll start the second part of my trilogy.  
****That is all.  
****Love, Dani :)**


	10. Grey Skies Turn Blue

**Yeah, so I spent this entire weekend coughing up all of my major organs. So I watched the entire third season of Heroes and decided to work on this story :)**

"**When grey skies turn blue, I'll come back for you. My mind can't change my heart there's nothing I can do." –Grey Skies Turn Blue by MXPX**

* * *

**6 Days Later…**

"Hey, you're going to the dance tomorrow right?" Frieda questioned eagerly taking a seat opposite of Ellie during the last few free minutes of Spanish. Ellie blinked in confusion.

"Dance? What dance?" Ellie asked.

"It's like this Spring Fling thing, but you have to go, we haven't sold enough tickets to make a profit!" Frieda pleaded flipping her brown hair in desperation, "It'll be fun! Great music, great food, great… decorated gymnasium!"

"Spring Fling? Sounds like a couple thing." Ellie stated skeptically.

"What about Richi-" Frieda asked. Ellie slammed her pencil on the desk.

"Why does everyone keep harassing me about him? We are seriously _just _friends, is he telling people that-"

"Ellie! I just meant that, Richie, Virgil, me and Daisy are all going, as a group of friends, so you don't need a date." Frieda interrupted quickly.

"Oh…" Ellie said rearranging her pencil neatly, then regaining a composed smile she responded, "I don't think I can go though, my counseling got moved from Sunday to Saturday. Sorry Frieda."

"It's alright," Frieda disappointedly sighed and looked down. For a moment Ellie considered just blowing off the counseling because she just looked so pitiful. But the moment a red haired boy entered the classroom after a bathroom break Frieda's attention shot up as she leapt from the desk and cornered him.

"Paul! Why don't you take Gina to the Spring Fling tomorrow?!" Ellie giggled as she heard Frieda harass him. That girl certainly had an influential future ahead of her. The bell rang and Ellie quickly stood up with her back pack. She waited until the rush for the door was over before heading out and then she skipped over to Richie's locker which was only one hallway away. People still hadn't really gotten used to Ellie's skipping, most thought she was very weird and they stared at her in confusion as she passed. But the people who had gotten to know her in the past 2 weeks, were quite aware that skipping was just a part of Ellie's abundant happy energy. And Richie paid it no mind when she pranced over to him and leaned against the locker next to him.

"Hey sunshine, how are you this fine spring day?" Ellie asked. He had also gotten somewhat used to the girlie statements she would utter. And it got rather frightening sometimes like the time she claimed that unicorns were a lot more bad ass than they appeared. Or she'd defend that Johnny Knoxville looks like the kind of person that would adopt kittens. Whatever outrageous claims she made, Richie learned it was best not to argue with her.

"I'm great Ellie, how are you?" Richie returned as he shoved his biology book into his backpack and closed his locker behind him.

"Well, I'm spectacular. I thought I might burn a couple thousand rounds around the track before I go home. What shenanigans do you and Virgil have planned?" Ellie asked.

"We're hanging out at Virgil's place, probably gonna play some video games and whatnot, maybe rent a movie, you're welcome to come over." Richie said.

"Nah, I'm good. You guys have fun and de-stress a little, you're both really on edge." Ellie said, "Besides, someone's gotta handle the streets when Static's off duty."

"I wish you would de-stress too, you've also been kinda jumpy lately." Richie observed.

"I'm always jumpy, it's a part of having super enhanced reflexes." Ellie reminded him.

"Well you just seem to be a little more anxious lately. But I know what'll make you feel better, are you going to the dance tomorrow?" Richie asked.

"Oh no, not you too. Frieda already cornered me about this. I have consoling, I can't go." Ellie immediately said.

"Oh come on, you know Mr. H will have no problem with rescheduling it." Richie said.

"Dances… aren't my thing." Ellie admitted.

"…really?" Richie asked.

"Does that surprise you?"

"Well… yeah! I mean you're just about the spunkiest girly girls I've ever met, a dance sounds right about your alley."

"Oh yeah, I just beat up meta-humans on a daily basis and basically strike fear into the hearts of common thugs and criminals. Oh but yeah, girly girl sounds like an appropriate term to describe me." Ellie shrugged sarcastically.

"Have you looked at you're attire recently?" Richie laughed. Ellie looked down at the pastel hippy flower patterned blouse she was wearing.

"Okay, my clothes don't count."

"You just greeted me, 'Hey Sunshine' and then told me you were 'spectacular'." Richie reminded her.

"My vocabulary doesn't count."

"Let me guess, you're actions and gestures don't count for anything either?"

"Whatever. But dances are still not my thing. I mean there's crappy music, crappy food and people trying to communicate with each other by screaming over the speakers. Not my idea of a fun time." Ellie explained as they opened the twin doors to the back entrance of the school, "But yeah, I'm running off, so just give me a call later so I know you're okay."

"You're getting paranoid." Richie rolled his eyes.

"Bite me, Foley." Ellie said with a grin as she sped off.

* * *

"Hi dad." Ellie greeted as she sped into the kitchen. Malcolm barely looked up from his coffee.

"Hello my little warrior, you have a nice day at school?" Malcolm yawned.

"You bet. I skipped three classes to hang out in the parking lot and do drugs with some less than reputable characters."

"Can I have a less sarcastic response?"

"Yes daddy, school was fine. How was work and such?"

"It was fine, I had an epiphany today though." Malcolm said.

"Did you invent a flux capacitor allowing humans to travel through space and time on the comfy seats of a DeLorean?"

"Um no. But I now think that I should be monitoring your Michael J. Fox intake. That response was a little too quick." Malcolm said.

"Yeah okay whatever. What was your epiphany?"

"I miss my kids." Malcolm said.

"Well spend time with us." Ellie commanded.

"I will… in two weeks when my work schedule calms down. But until then I'll just buy your love like a good parent." With that Malcolm tossed a box in the air and it landed into Ellie's awaiting hands. Ellie smiled warmly as she saw the picture on the box.

"Aw! You replaced my iPod? What happened to the whole 'I'm not buying you a new one because you won't learn anything...' Blah, blah, blah, old person rant?" Ellie asked.

"Eh, I don't mind spoiling my youngest little girl every once in a while."

"And here I thought being the Ginny Weasly in this family would never pay off." Ellie grinned as she took a seat at the table, "Thanks dad."

"You're welcome sweet pea. Is there anything going on your life you want to talk about before I leave for my double shift?"

"Not really."

"Oh, are you dating that kid next door yet?" Malcolm asked.

"Why do you believe the things that come out of Peter's mouth?" Ellie asked with an un-amused look on her face.

"I still can't believe you told him you were Velocity, I mean what were you thinking?" Malcolm scoffed and sipped his coffee and flipped through the crossword puzzles that now how held more appeal to him than the current conversation.

"I trust him." Ellie said quietly her eyes fixated on the placemat in front of her. Malcolm returned his attention to his daughter and his bigger hand wrapped around his daughter's bony fingers.

"I'm glad you found someone you trust here." He smiled reassuringly, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I guess I'm just wondering myself what I was thinking. It even sounds ridiculous, I just broke down my deepest secret for the first pair of blue eyes I saw. I've been trying to convince myself that I only told him because of the whole Ebon situation and that the physical attraction that he has over me has nothing to do with it, but it would just help if I didn't feel that way." Ellie sighed as she slumped over the table, her eyes looked up to her father who seemed confused and unsure of what to say, and she added, "Sorry. Sometimes I forget that excessive amounts of estrogen freak you out. Maybe Mr. Hawkins is right… I do need chicks to talk to."

"Why don't you call Constance more?" Malcolm asked. Ellie's face scrunched up with the thought of talking to her old friend from New York. And while the girl was practically family to her, the thought of going to her for advice was bizarre.

"I said a chick, not an uncompassionate demon." Ellie said.

"Well why don't you call your mother?" Malcolm suggested.

"Yeah, that's even less unlikely." Ellie shook her head.

"I wish you'd try to talk to her. Trust me you don't wanna end up one of those 40 year old nut cases in therapy that blames all their problems in life on their mother."

"Weren't you the one telling me I shouldn't be such a caveman and a lot of people get therapy nowadays?" Ellie asked curiously.

"I only have you in therapy because you won't talk to me. I figure you should be getting advice from somewhere." Malcolm shrugged.

"I'm talking to you right now. And I talk to Pete about my problems sometimes… even though he doesn't come to me with his." Ellie said morbidly as she slumped again. Malcolm set his coffee and crossword aside as he looked at his daughter in complete and utter curiosity.

"What are you talking about El?" he asked.

"It's nothing." Ellie lied with a depressing sigh.

"It's not nothing. What hasn't Peter told you?" Malcolm blinked. Ellie hesitated for a moment.

"He didn't tell me he was in AA…" Ellie admitted.

"I see…" Malcolm nodded. Ellie looked up to try and read her father's expression.

"Did he tell you?"

"Yes he did."

"Why didn't you guys tell me? It's eating me up." Ellie asked. It really was, Ellie had always felt like her and Peter shared a strong bond. Her other two brothers Charlie and John were much older than her and always treated her like a kid. But Peter leaned on her. She cooked dinners for him and he would ask her opinion on the girls he dated. They shared their amount of bickering but they were still close. At least they had been.

"Do you really want to know?" Malcolm asked as he folded his hands.

"Yes, I really do." Ellie said.

"You're a kid." Malcolm said bluntly. Ellie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"That's your reason?"

"Yep."

"You think my 'fragile' kid mind handle this?"

"It shouldn't have to." Malcolm said. Ellie just stared at him with her mouth opened in disbelief before he decided to embellish, "Eleanor, did you know that I_ really_ resent your mother?"

"You haven't ever mentioned it." Ellie noticed.

"Well that's because I don't want to sway you or your brother's opinion of her. But the truth is, I really can't stand her for what she did to you. She made you an adult when you were five. You've always had to be the grown up in every situation you got into. I've always hoped you would gain some childhood innocence… but then you became Velocity and all hopes of that were gone. You've seen the worlds true colors, its cruel and evil. But you're still a kid, you're still my little Ellie bean for three more years. Alcohol is Peter's adult problem…" Malcolm explained.

"But I have adult problems too."

"Right, but those are yours to worry about. You don't need your brother's problems added on to that." Malcolm said.

"I guess I don't." Ellie said sadly, "I'm just gonna go to take a nap and sleep on it ya know? Have a nice shift, I love you dad." She said as she bent over and kissed his cheek.

"I love you too sweetheart." Malcolm called after her.

* * *

Virgil and Richie were eating popcorn and enjoying the last few minutes of a cheesy slasher film on this casual Friday night.

"Don't go in the closet." Virgil warned the television as the redheaded girl gasped and spun around wildly her hand touching the closet door knob, "Don't do it." Virgil warned again. She opened the door and the body of her boyfriend fell to the ground and she screamed. Virgil shook his head, "Told her not to do it."

"Homegirl shouldn't be hiding in the upstairs room anyway, she should be heading for the front door." Richie sighed. 'The End' written in blood flashed across the screen before the credits began to roll. Richie yawned and stretched.

"Well, I gotta get going home, I'll see you tomorrow." Richie said.

"Hold on Richie, I'll go ask my pops to give you a ride." Virgil insisted.

"It's okay, I'll just walk V." he shook his head.

"I don't know Rich, it's pretty late and with Ebon out and all, it's kinda dangerous. And it's pretty grey out there, it's gonna start raining soon." Virgil reminded him.

"Grey skies turn blue sometimes. It's been quiet all week, maybe Ebon was just bluffing." Richie shrugged, "I'll be fine V."

"Alright, I'll meet you and the girls at the dance at like 7 tomorrow." Virgil extended his arm and they did their traditional fist bump.

"Catch you later V," Richie called as he walked down the front steps of the Hawkins residence. He had made it passed the curb before he felt a rain drop hit his face. Maybe he should have taken the ride when he was offered it. He had rounded another block before reaching a bus bench. He took a seat and decided to wait. The bright street lamp that was over his head flickered catching Richie's attention. His fingers drummed on the arm rest of the bend impatiently, until the light went completely out flooding the entire corner with darkness. Richie nervously looked around before a shadow zoomed by making him jump.

"Calm down Foley…" Richie muttered to himself after letting out a deep breath. A few footsteps behind him sounded and he whipped around to see no one there. "Hello?" he called out into the darkness. There was no response. And the blond turned his attention to the sidewalk and sighed.

"Man, I gotta get a grip." Richie said rubbing his temples. He allowed his shoulders to drop and fall into an almost relaxed state of mind. But it was a bad idea to let his guard down. Because not even a second later a shadowy hand wrapped itself around his mouth and he was pulled into a world of darkness.

* * *

'_Hey it's Richie, leave a message.' _Beep.

"Hi Richie, it's Ellie." The blond said as she paced the kitchen floor, "It's uh Saturday evening and I haven't heard from you since yesterday. So I'm growing a bit concerned, just give me a call when you get this, kay?" she hung up the phone and sighed.

"Richie trouble?" Malcolm asked as he entered the kitchen to use the fridge.

"Kinda… he was supposed to call me yesterday, but he never did. But I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just getting ready for the dance tonight." Ellie said as she sat on the kitchen counter and opened a bag of fruit snacks.

"He's going to a dance tonight… without you?" Malcolm said.

"Dad, we're not a couple or anything. Why should I care if he goes to a dance without me?" Ellie said, even though the truth was that she did care. She cared A LOT.

"Well, it's just yesterday you said…"

"I said I was attracted to him. But that's all." Ellie said, "I'm not the right girl for him. I'm trouble. And God knows that's the last thing that boy needs. It's bad enough we're friends."

"I'm sure he doesn't see it that way."

"Well that's the way I see it." Ellie sighed, "I just wish he'd pick up his phone, I'm worried."

"Why don't you call Virgil?" Malcolm suggested.

"I tried, Mr. Hawkins said he's spending the day at the mall and then he's going straight to the dance. I asked if Richie was with him, but Mr. H said he didn't know." Ellie said, "But it's okay, I'll probably just drop by his house when the dance is over to see if he's there or not." She stretched out and finished the last of her fruit snacks. "I'm probably gonna head over to the Community Center now, so I'll see you when I get back."

"Okay, be careful, El." Malcolm said.

"Always." Ellie said before speeding out of the house.

* * *

"Later pops! I'll call you before 10:30!" Virgil announced as he closed the door behind him. Robert Hawkins waved off his son and drove away. Virgil straightened his jacket and started heading for the gymnasium. He had gotten there rather late, so most of everybody was already inside. His fingers just barely touched the door knob before a scream sent an icy chill down his spine.

"Help me! Somebody!" a feminine voice called for help and followed in a series of painful screams. Virgil glanced down at his civilian wear, there was no time to change into Static. He quickly turned the corner where he heard the voice coming from. The side parking lot was abandoned save a hooded girl curled up in the fetal position near the dumpster. Virgil quickly ran over to her.

"Hey, miss, are you alright?" he called eagerly as he bent down next to her. A feather fell from inside the hoodie and Virgil picked it up with two fingers. He slowly looked over as a sick realization sunk into the pit of his stomach. Talon grinned as she quickly lowered the hoodie. Virgil stood to his feet only to be caught in Ebon's shadowy grip.

* * *

Ellie was sitting in the waiting room with her legs crossed as she read the latest Cosmo. She had been grateful that Robert had moved her appointment a day earlier. A dance was the last place she wanted to be at the moment. She was too riled up, she wanted to be in costume. She checked her watch and noted it was almost 7, Robert had most likely just dropped off Virgil at the dance. The lobby was completely abandoned, since the community center closed at six o clock on Saturdays. But Mr. Hawkins had forgotten that he had to drop off Virgil at the dance, so he wound up scheduling Ellie's appointment for a little later than usual. The place was completely quiet except for the radio playing on the front desk. Ellie stood up and headed over to the soda machine and had a quick mental debate on whether or not to take a run before her appointment.

"Eleanor Covelli?" someone called her name as she attempted to feed the machine her dollar.

"Yeah?" Ellie asked and turned around to see her addresser. But turning around only led to Shiv tackling her and pressing her against a wall. Ellie let out a scream of surprise as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and quickly cuffed her ankles together. He let her go and Ellie dropped to the ground, she tugged at the metal device trapping her legs in place, "What the hell?!"

"Yeah, try getting out of that one Speedy!" Shiv challenged. Ice cold fear crept into her entire system. She was mortified when the realization that Shiv had found her as Ellie completely crept in.

"What are you talking about?" Ellie asked with the best confused voice she could to try and throw him off.

"Oh you know exactly what I'm talking about…Velocity!" Shiv accused. The unmasked heroine angrily used the vending machine for balance to steady herself.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm not Velocity, you jumped up little creep!" Ellie growled.

"Well _Velocity_, I have specific orders from Ebon to keep you from interrupting with tonight's plans. So you're gonna sit back…" Shiv paused and shoved Ellie into a rolling chair. "and watch the fireworks."

"What fireworks?" Ellie questioned.

"You'll just have to see Miss. Covelli." Shiv stated as he turned on the news, "Oh and by the way, Talon and I have a bet on that you're banging that Foley kid, so what's the deal?" Ellie spat at him and glared, Shiv let a disappointed sneer cross his lips as he mumbled, "Something tells me I'm out 20 dollars."

* * *

**Uh oh spaghetti-o. ;)**

**Hit that review button, dear.**


	11. Nothing Personal

"**Do you remember when we were younger? And the world was so big. The trees would hang over us like skyscrapers. They still do, but now we don't notice****" –Nothing Personal by Backseat Goodbye**

* * *

Virgil was seriously beginning to doubt he'd survive this night. After being snatched outside the school back alley, Ebon and Talon had taken him to a classroom. He recognized it as his freshman year Spanish classroom, where he had spent every Friday afternoon before a major vacation having a mini fiesta always consisting of eating nachos and taquitos while wearing a sombrero. But now was not the time for sombrero reminiscing, now was the time to be planning some type of heroic escape. He looked around and noticed two blank television screens in front of the classroom and he was almost 99 percent sure that Senora Rodriguez didn't require two television sets. So he assumed the two television sets had something to do with the diabolical plan thought up by the two meta humans in front of him.

"Talon, why don't you go and help out Shiv? I want to have some fun with Hawkins here." Ebon ordered. The feathered criminal took off and the maniacal shadow loomed closer to Virgil.

"Look, I don't know what you want from me okay?" Virgil swallowed hard. Ebon punched the poor teen and he fell to the ground. He used his arms to push himself up but Ebon's stretched out arms slammed him against a wall.

"Jig's up Hawkins, I know you're Static." Ebon growled, "And I know that Covelli's actually Velocity. And I'm taking you both off the street."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Virgil said his voice and face were controlled, but his hands nervously shook inside his pockets.

"Of course you don't. I hadn't expected you to break so easily, that's why I had to have a back up plan." Ebon grinned evilly, "I got you this time hero. I've got a bomb in the gym filled up with all your precious classmates and of course the closet where your running buddy Foley is locked up. When that blows up it's gonna set off a chain of dynamite that will destroy this entire pitiful school." Ebon explained. Virgil could no longer keep the fear from his expression and his mouth dropped.

"Ebon you can't be serious, petty crimes are one thing, but this… this is mass murder!" Virgil said, "You can't do this! I won't let you!"

"You won't let me? Well that'll be a little difficult considering you don't have a choice. You brought this on yourself hero." Ebon said.

"B-but I'm not Static!" Virgil lied his eyes focused on his shoes and his voice cracked, "This is crazy."

"Crazy? You think this is crazy? No hero." Ebon slammed Virgil against the wall once more, "Crazy is spending nine months in jail because of some goody two shoes little nark. You've had this coming."

"You can't do this! Please don't do this!" Virgil pleaded.

"Too late for begging, far too late." Ebon grinned maliciously, "Can't say I don't enjoy the sound of it though." Ebon said as he clicked on the two television sets.

The first one must have been wired to a video camera in the gym because Virgil could clearly see his fellow students dancing. Dancing very badly. The drama club was currently in the process of an unenthusiastic Macarena. If you're going to do the Macarena you must be enthusiastic about it otherwise it just looks ridiculous.

The other screen must have been wired to the closet where Richie was being kept because Virgil could clearly see his blond comrade attacking a door. Attacking very badly. He was currently in the process of trying to tackle the door while tied up. If you're going to try and tackle a door you must have your legs free so you can get a running start, however if your feet are tied up and you're bunny hopping at maximum speed towards a locked door you tend to look ridiculous.

"You're going to sit back and watch them die because of you." Ebon informed him. Yes, Virgil was seriously beginning to doubt he'd survive this night.

* * *

"What the hell are you rats up to anyway?" Ellie growled her arms crossed and her eyes were narrowed.

"You and Static are the ones who are informants for the cops, how are we the rats?" Shiv questioned as he looked through a desk and examined a snow globe before putting it in his pocket.

"Look at yourself, you're scavenging around a desk for cheap knick knacks to steal. How much money will a crappy snow globe from Oklahoma get you anyway?" Ellie asked.

"Eh, you never know. When you're living in the streets you have to take what you can." Shiv shrugged casually. Ellie then felt a tang of sympathy for the meta humans she fought so diligently against. They were poor and they stole to fulfill their basic needs. But just because life was hard didn't give them a right to steal or kidnap her. So she swallowed down her sympathy and continued to give the purple haired meta human a serious attitude.

"My parent's are really respected people around here and they'll seek capital punishment for kidnapping their only little girl, capiche?" Ellie tried her hand at the classic spoiled rich girl threat.

"You're dad's a scientist who lives in a middle class neighborhood." Shiv read as he picked up Mr. Hawkin's file on her from his desk.

"Well, he could make some weirdo science ray gun that'll he'll zap you with." Ellie said as the mental picture of a Terminator-looking Malcolm wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket and wielded an alien looking gun filled her mind.

"Oh mommy lives in Houston and it says here you don't like to talk bout her very much." Shiv read aloud. Ellie's teeth gritted and her knuckle cracked rather loudly. But she was interrupted from her new anger when a new voice sounded.

"Shiv, what are you doing?" Talon questioned as she arrived through the doors, "You idiot, do you want her to escape? Her hands should be tied."

"Sorry, I got distracted." Shiv said innocently, he put down the file in favor of his bag of potato chips. Talon's eyes looked over to the vending machine, there was gaping hole in the glass. She rolled her eyes and ignored Shiv's idiocy.

"I'll do it, you'll probably just mess it up anyway." Talon growled as she pulled out a rope and began confining Ellie's hands.

"What about Hawkins?" Shiv asked. Ellie's attention was drawn and her head shot up.

"Don't worry about him. Ebon took Hawkins and Foley out of the picture." Talon said. Ellie froze in shock and stopped her struggling. Her throat and eyes were burning, no it couldn't be true. There was no way those incompetent metas were able to kill them. Talon sensed the tension as she realized Ellie had stop fighting her, she added with an evil grin, "Don't worry Ebon was real quick about it." She said hoping to get a rise out of the trapped heroine. She got her wish as Ellie began struggling again.

"Bitch!" Ellie growled. Then the radio from the desk interrupted them.

"Hello Dakota! I don't think I have to remind you that the Dakota Super Power Hour is going to be on in 5 minutes! So grab a seat, don't turn the station and think up your best superhero stories!" The radio announcer's deep voice instructed. An idea began to formulate inside Ellie's head. But before she could initiate it, she had to find out what they were planning. And there was only one complex and intricate way Ellie could think of in order to discover what the two meta humans were planning…

"What are you planning?" Ellie asked.

"Oh yeah, like we're gonna tell you." Shiv said sarcastically. Talon had picked up Ellie's abandoned Cosmo and was clearly uninterested in getting into a banter with her. So Ellie persisted Shiv.

"Well, it's common villain etiquette to reveal your master plan in a menacing manner so feelings of helplessness and heartbreak begin to stew inside me thus avenging all the time you spent in jail and give you some kind of twisted psychotic masochist pleasure and what not." Ellie reminded him.

"But that's when you somehow manage some kind of impossible escape and then ruin everything."

"Ah, but you see I'm not a superhero, I'm just a mistakenly trapped teenage girl with absolutely no kind of power to foil your master plan."

"But even if you are mistakenly captured, you'd find some way to break free and contact the actually Velocity, giving her a heads up, thus allowing her to ruin our master plan." Shiv said, "I've seen enough cartoons to know how this kinda thing works out."

"Well fine then," Ellie pouted almost disappointed enough to give up. But another idea struck her. She watched a lot of cartoons too. And she'd seen enough Bugs Bunny to know a little reverse psychology was all she'd need to manipulate Shiv. "I already know what your plan is anyway."

"Psh, yeah right." Shiv said.

"No really, you're not too great of a villain, your body language gave everything away."

"What? That's ridiculous."

"No it's really not. I know what you're planning down to the last detail."

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do."

"You do not! There's no way you could know!"

"Oh but I do, you're heinous plan is practically see through." Ellie flipped her hair in a dramatic manner, "You are clearly going to bring me to an abandoned warehouse where I see Static hanging in one cage and my family hanging in a separate cage over a tiger pit and then Ebon will let out a diabolical laugh and make me chose which cage to save."

"Ha! You couldn't be anymore wrong! We took your school dance hostage and we're gong to blow it up to teach you guys a lesson." Shiv said triumphantly. Then realization clouded him and he clapped a hand over his mouth as if he could recapture his confession.

"Shiv!" Talon angrily slammed down the magazine.

"I didn't say anything!"

"Oh you idiot!"

Ellie tuned out the squabbling meta humans. She had all she needed to set her plan into motion. She looked over and made sure Shiv and Talon were still preoccupied before executing the first step. She closed her eyes and focused all her energy on her hands. She had picked up a neat little trick a while ago, just like her feet could move at hyper speed, so could her hands. She started off moving her wrists up and down against the ropes slowly, but then she picked up speed until the friction burned the ropes. Once free, she made sure that Shiv and Talon were still bickering before grabbing the phone off the desk. She dialed in the number fast and swept all her hair to the left of her neck so she could hide the phone from sight.

"WWDK-FM, how can I help you?"

"Adam. Adam Evans, I need to talk to him **now **it's an emergency." Ellie whispered urgently.

"Please hold." The receptionist said.

"No…" Ellie groaned lightly. She had to hope this wasn't going to take long, or else they would realize she had the phone. Thankfully it only took a moment.

"Adam Evans, here. I only have a moment before the Power Hour starts, is this urgent?" He greeted.

"I just saw Velocity running towards Dakota Union High where the meta-humans are keeping a whole bunch of kids captive, and Static is not far behind."

"And you want me to announce this over the radio? The segment is for stories, not spottings." Adam said annoyed.

"Please, I need your help, I need you to announce this, from one super hero to another Rubber Band Man." Ellie pleaded.

"Who is this?" Adam asked curiously.

"Hey! What do you have there?" Talon said angrily and grabbed the phone from her ear. She crushed the phone into dust and Ellie winced.

"Who were you talking to?" Shiv questioned.

"Oh I called the Bat Cave and asked if Robin could come back me up." Ellie said sarcastically and then resumed an angry voice, "Who do you think?! I called the cops! There gonna be here any second!" Ellie lied as convincingly as she could. Luckily her tone was defensive enough to convince them. Shiv looked to Talon, he was slightly nervous.

"Let's get her out of here. We'll go to Ebon." Shiv suggested.

"Fine." Talon reluctantly agreed. She grabbed Ellie's wrists and pulled her up out of her chair.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Ellie shouted and pulled away from Talon. Shiv grabbed her around the midsection and his hands glowed purple until the blades held her into place as she was dragged along.

"NO! You're wrong! Stop! I'm not Velocity! I'm not…" Ellie screamed in protest, before the faded static from the radio turned into Adam's voice.

"And this just in… Velocity and Static have just been spotted heading towards Dakota Union High, where the meta-breed is holding a bunch of students hostage…" he stated. Ellie felt a smile curl at her lips… she seriously owed Rubber Band Man for that. Shiv and Talon both froze and looked from Ellie to the radio.

"I told you! Velocity is heading to the school right now to stop your little plans! I'm no superhero!" Ellie yelled while still being restrained by Shiv's glowing arms. Talon shifted uneasily.

"Come on Shiv, let's get out of here." Talon said. Shiv released Ellie and the two meta-humans ran out the door. Ellie gasped in relief and she quickly grabbed a paper weight and crushed the links of the handcuffs that held her ankles together. Once she was free she ran for the backpack underneath her chair, thankfully Shiv and Talon hadn't noticed. She changed into Velocity quickly and she kicked it into hyper speed towards the high school.

**

* * *

**

"What?! What are you talking about?!" Ebon growled through the phone.

"We were wrong, boss! Static and Velocity are heading for the school right now! Covelli called the cops on me and Talon, so we booked! Ebon you gotta run too, you're gonna be outnumbered…" Ebon hung up the phone during Shiv's nervous rant. He turned to Virgil, and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"So Hawkins, you were telling the truth... oh well nothing personal." Ebon threw him back against the wall. Virgil groaned in pain and Ebon clicked the button to initiate the detonator for the bomb. Virgil's mouth dropped, and he stood to his feet. Ebon let out an evil cackle and slithered out of the room locking it behind him. Virgil picked up the timer, 5 minutes. He ran for the door and looked out the window making sure Ebon was gone before picking the lock with his electricity. Virgil ran down the hallway only to have Velocity crash into him.

"V!" she shouted in excitement, she threw her arms around him trapping him in a hug, "You're okay! I was so afraid that Ebon…" she started.

"Ebon started the bomb timer! The whole school's going to blow in less than 5 minutes!" Virgil grabbed her shoulders. Velocity's eyes widened.

"What?!" she stated.

"Look, I'll try and find where Ebon hid Richie, but I need you to evacuate the gym." Virgil commanded.

"On it!" Velocity sped out of the hallway. Virgil ran for an empty classroom and quickly changed into Static. He was quickly on his disc and burst into every closet or storage room he could find.

Meanwhile Velocity ran at full speed and crashed into the gym doors, forcing them open. She fell to the floor and a crowd of students all gasped. She used her arms and pushed herself up and stood. She looked at the teenagers who just stared at her blankly. They had all frozen mid party, their dance positions held awkwardly.

"Well! GO! Get out! The schools gonna blow!" Velocity yelled and motioned for the door. A panic erupted fast and every student started pushing passed each other. Velocity squeezed through the crowd, and the gym was completely emptied in a matter of seconds. She cracked her neck.

"That was… easy?" she questioned herself. But she shrugged regardless and went to leave. The sound of thumping against a door made her stop. In the corner where all the gym equipment was located, there was a chair propped underneath the handle. She sped over and quickly removed the metal chair out of the way, she cautiously opened it only to have a tied up Richie once again try and tackle the door. He, of course, went tumbling to the ground.

"Richie! Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" Velocity quickly probed. Richie only mumbled behind the duct tape that concealed his words. "Oh sorry." she apologized and ripped off the tape.

"Ouch! Dude, I thought that was just a movie over exaggeration, but having tape ripped off your mouth really does frickin hurt." Richie said but Velocity wasn't really paying attention as she went to work on the knots that bound his hands and feet. In a matter of seconds Richie was free and rubbing the severe red marks from the ropes.

"Can you walk?" Velocity asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Richie stood up.

"Good because we gotta get the hell out of here." She said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him along.

"What's going on? They tied me up and threw me in there, but they didn't tell me what they're planning." Richie said trying to keep up with Velocity.

"Long story short: They were gonna blow up the dance to teach me and Static a lesson. But I got everyone out okay and now we're leaving before we end up charred remains on the gym floor." Velocity said.

"Wait, were just gonna let him blow up our school without even attempting to stop him?" Richie asked.

"Dude, we don't have enough time." Velocity said remorsefully.

"But that just means that Ebon wins." Richie argued.

"If that's the price we have to pay for everyone to be safe, then Ebon's just going to have to win this battle." Velocity stated.

"Too bad I'm not in it for the battle, I'm in it for the war." The shadow interrupted making both blonds jump in surprise. Velocity quickly moved in front of Richie.

"Run Richie," she commanded. But before he could argue about leaving her behind, Ebon had disappeared from sight, and of course, reappeared behind Richie. The shadow had an arm confining Richie's throat before he even fully grasped what was going on. Velocity made a move to attack but Ebon only shook his head.

"Take one more step and I'll snap his neck, speedy." Ebon threatened. Velocity lifted her hands in surrender.

"Okay… calm down, just let him go…" she stated.

"No. He's got some link to you and Static, and I'm going to find out what it is right now! Take off your mask!" Ebon ordered.

"Ebon… don't be stupid, okay? This isn't the time or the place, this whole school is going to blow in just a few minutes." Velocity reasoned.

"Well then you better take it off quickly. You and I have the ability to get out of here fast, but our little Richie." Ebon ruffled Richie's blond hair, "…he's just not as quick as us."

"Stop it." Velocity growled, "Your problems with me, leave him out of it."

"Well unfortunately for him, he _is_ in the middle of this." Ebon tightened his hold and Richie gasped from the sudden restriction of air.

"No!" Velocity shouted desperately, "Leave him alone!" Ebon let out an evil chuckle, enjoying his torment over the younger girl.

"Are you going to cooperate?" Ebon asked, Velocity opened her mouth angrily but Ebon pointed to his wrist, "Tick tock, tick tock." Velocity cringed and closed her eyes.

"Yes." She said, "Yes, I'll cooperate."

"Velocity, no!" Richie yelled before Ebon covered his mouth, and his shouts became muffled. He twisted the blonde's arm and he groaned in pain.

"Stop, you're gonna hurt him!" she pleaded.

"I'll do more than hurt him, now take off the mask!" He retorted.

"Okay, okay!" Velocity said. She looked up at Richie and their blue eyes locked together. Richie shook his head slowly. She mouthed 'It's okay', and brought her shaking hands to her face. She closed her eyes and sighed, as her hands gripped the bottom of her mask.

The idea of Ebon knowing for sure the secret identity of Velocity was horrifying. If he knew Eleanor Covelli, then he would find Malcolm and Peter. Eventually find her brother's John and Charlie Dan. Maybe even trace the Covelli line to her mother in Houston. But Richie's life was more important than her safety. She would just have to find some way else to protect her family. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath as she gently started to lift the mask off her face.

"Let him go Ebon!" Static saved the day as he zoomed inside the gymnasium taking Ebon's attention away. Ellie quickly readjusted the mask and ceased the opportunity to speed towards Ebon and tackle him, thus releasing his hold on Richie. The shadow was now frustrated and angry at two evil plots being foiled in one night. His hand caught her throat in one swift movement, holding her steady long enough to get a powerful punch into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Not to mention the throbbing pain added by the pre-existing burn given to her by Hotstreak which she seriously doubted would ever heal. As Ebon went to try and strike the disoriented heroine a volt of electricity hit him.

"I got Ebon, get Richie out of here!" Static shouted to Velocity. The yellow clad superhero quickly grabbed Richie's hand and pulled him along. They ran down the hallway, Richie stumbling at how fast she was making him run. When he cleared the left hall way in less than four seconds, the blond finally tripped over his awkward running and collided with the floor.

"Come on Richie!" Velocity said as she pulled him back to his feet.

"I can't run as fast as you!" Richie stated loudly. Velocity groaned.

"Well try!" she grabbed him again and they sprinted down the hall way where the doors were in sight. They pushed through them so they were outside the school. Richie bent over and put his hands on his knees as he wheezed. There was a loud crash and the sound of electricity zapping.

"Stay here." Velocity instructed leaving Richie alone in the quad outside of the school. She zoomed back inside to the brawl that Static appeared to have in complete control. She had underestimated him when she first came to Dakota. Ebon was on the floor groaning in pain when Static zapped him again.

"Where's the bomb?" he questioned impatiently.

"Screw off hero." Ebon growled. Static zapped him again making his yell out and curse at the electrical teenage.

"Where?" he repeated.

"Go to Hell." Ebon said. Static lifted his hand in annoyed manner and went to go and send Ebon into some more pain, but Velocity's gentle gloved hand grabbed his. She winked and initiated the classic game of good cop/bad cop.

"Come on Ebon, think this through logically. If you don't come clean and tell us where the bomb is then you'll just get blown up too." Velocity said feigning compassion for the shadow that had earlier planned her demise.

"Suck it, you bitch." Ebon growled. Velocity shook her head.

"I'm sorry but impending volts of electricity are just no excuse for such vulgar language, zap him." Velocity let go of Static's arm.

"Wait!" Ebon stopped him, the two heroes stopped and gave their attention to Ebon before he sighed, "The bleachers… it's in the bleachers." He pointed to the set of high school gym bleachers in the corner of the room.

"Hold him there." Velocity instructed Static and she sped over to the corner searching through the cracks in the bleachers for the bomb. She then spotted a blinking red light duct taped underneath the tallest seat. So for the second time that night she ripped duct taped off of a surface. Thankfully the plastic wooden surface didn't let out the same yell of pain that Richie had. She glanced down at the time they had left. 45 seconds.

"Uh oh." Velocity muttered before zooming back to Static and Ebon, "We've got forty five seconds before we're blown to little pieces of meta humans."

"Not good." Static voiced as he took the bomb from Velocity checking the time himself.

"Sucks for you." Ebon shrugged before ceasing the opportunity of Static's lack of attention and slinking off to the shadows. Velocity made a move to chase after him before Static grabbed her arm.

"The ticking bomb in my hands is the priority."

"Modern bombs usually don't tick dude."

"Is that even relevant right now?"

"Well yeah, because we're talking about a non-ticking modern bomb."

"Okay, now isn't the time for our regular banter, let's focus on this considering we have thirty two seconds."

"Right do you have any experience with diffusing bombs?" Velocity asked. Static gave her a look.

"I'm a sophomore in high school."

"You have a double life as a superhero, surely you've come across bombs in your line of work."

"No, I don't have experience with diffusing bombs, you squirrel!"

"Squirrel? What kind of an insult is that?"

"THERE'S A BOMB IN MY HANDS VELOCITY!"

"Right. Let's get rid of that." Velocity said before suggesting, "I can run it out to a desert."

"This things going off in like nineteen seconds we don't have time for that."

"Well it's metal right? Can't you zap it up in the air and out of sight?" Velocity pointed upwards.

"Ebon thought this through this, this is plastic." Static explained. Velocity looked around before an idea occurred to her and she jumped up in excitement.

"The metal on the bleachers! Wrap it around the bomb, that way the bombs attatched to the metal and you can send the metal-"

"Up in the air and out of sight! Velocity you're a genius!" Static said.

"Well thank you sweetie." Velocity stated as Static's electromagnetic powers ripped one of the seats from the bleacher and it molded itself around the bomb which now read five seconds. Quickly, he sent the ball of metal hurling through the gymnasium ceiling and it made it a good 300 feet above the school before exploding. Velocity and Static both let out a sigh of relief before collapsing on the floor in fatigue.

"Dude." Velocity said.

"Yes?" Static replied.

"I think this triumph calls for a fist bump, don't you?" Velocity stated.

"Well that's usually me and Richie's thing, but I think I can make an exception for our near death experience." Static agreed and extended his fist and Velocity returned the hand gesture before letting out another sigh and ceasing the art of sitting up in favor of laying on the gym floor.

* * *

"Is this necessary?" Richie asked as Velocity pulled him into the art classroom. Outside of the school, most of the teens who had been at the dance were being questioned about the event by police (who once again had arrived much too late, gotta love America). The trio had snuck away because technically none of them had partaken in the dance. Static had just taken his disc home, but Velocity had phoned Malcolm to come and pick up her and Richie since they lived in such close proximity. But before Malcolm came to pick them up Velocity and Richie had to duck out from the police and find a place for the yellow clad heroine to change into civilian wear.

"Yes it's necessary. After all this nonsense that went down tonight, I'm not letting anyone see Velocity get into a car with my dad, that just compromises my identity again." She said as she checked the outside window, "Yeah, we're good, no cops are snooping around here. Now turn around." Velocity commanded.

"I can just wait out in the hall…" Richie said awkwardly shuffling his feet.

"Okaaaaay, maybe you didn't get me the first time around, it's been a crazy frickin night, I'm paranoid. You're not leaving within a three foot radius of me, got it?" Velocity said, "Turn around now, please." Richie obeyed and could feel a blush burning on his cheeks as he tried to block out the sound of sliding clothes crumpling to the ground.

"Okay, you're good." Ellie informed him as she folded up her costume and tucked it underneath her arm. Richie turned around and really hoped the redness in his face had disappeared. Ellie didn't seem phased as she gave him a smile. She then wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Richie had a moment of confusion before returning the embrace.

"What's the hug for?" Richie asked.

"Because for a moment there, when I was being held up at the community center, I thought you and Virgil were dead. And then I was so relieved when I found you guys but then Ebon grabbed you… I just need a damn hug Foley, don't question my motives." Ellie smiled refusing to let go of her friend. The heroine's affection gave Richie confidence, enough confidence to admit his true feelings for her.

"Ellie?"

"Yeah, Richie?"

"I-"

"Foley! Covelli!" The two teens jumped at hearing their names called in such a scary manner. And standing in the doorway was Mrs. Coleman leering at them.

"Mrs. Coleman… uh… we were just…" Ellie began.

"In the Art Wing! You have no business being in the Art Wing. Detention." She growled. The two looked at each other and then back to the teacher. They had just saved the entire school and now they had detention? The only thing they could articulate to the teacher was:

"…really?"

* * *

**Ah gotta love the irony.**

**Well anyway, we have one more chapter left of this story and it will be a very short epilogue type of chapter. **

**And it will be updated fairly soon :) **

**But the plot has basically been wrapped up. **

**I hope you enjoyed it darlings!**


	12. Beautiful Disaster

**So, this is like a little Epilogue. Not really all that long. **

"**What chu want anyway? We keep falling in love. What a beautiful disaster." -Beautiful Disaster by American Hi-fi**

* * *

It was 3:30 and Ellie's foot was tapping at hyper speed. Detention was clearly not her thing. Richie kept looking over at her fast paced tapping and then back to Mrs. Coleman. He certainly hoped that she wouldn't notice, but she was wrapped up in the book she was reading anyway. She sipped the last of her coffee and announced she would be back in a moment and instructed that the two were to stay put at their desks. The moment the door closed Ellie leapt to her feet.

"I'm _so_ gone!" Ellie sighed in relief. Richie's eyes went wide as he stood to his feet as well.

"You can't leave yet, we still have another half an hour!" Richie reminded her.

"I. Do. Not. CARE! Do you have any idea how long an hour is to me? Just sitting in silence?!"

"Ellie, the punishment for skipping detention is an office detention."

"I'll just skip that one too!"

"Then you'll get a Saturday detention."

"I'll skip that one too!"

"Then you'll get an in-school suspension! And that goes on your permanent record. Colleges tend to frown on that."

"Oh who cares? All the skipped detentions will distract them from that." Ellie shrugged as she headed to the door. Richie quickly grabbed her and redirected her to her seat, "No! You can't make me stay here Richie! It's scary!"

"Scary?"

"Yes! In case you haven't noticed that teacher looks like a vulture! I'm kind of afraid she's going to kill me then feast upon my cold flesh."

"That's kinda gross." Richie interjected but Ellie ignored him.

"Then she'll weave a basket with my entrails that she'll carry my severed head in as she skips merrily…"

"Okay, you need to stop exaggerating."

"Exaggerating? I don't exaggerate."

"You're the most dramatic person I've ever met."

"I'm not dramatic, dramatic is the word you use to describe the monosyllabic, whiny, bleach blond bitches that spread rumors about everyone. I'm merely a tad theatrical." Ellie corrected.

"…aren't you blond?" Richie asked.

"Shut up." Ellie snapped, "Point is: You can't make me stay here."

"Come on El, you handle psychotic villains on a daily basis, you can't handle an hour detention?"

"I'd take psychotic villains in a heart beat! If I spend one more moment in this putrid place I'll scream so loud that the only way to block out the white noise will be to pull your brain out through your auditory canal."

"Oh you'll last!" said Richie.

"No I won't! This is unbearable! How do people even withstand this kind of torture? It's too quiet, it's too slow, and it's just too predictable! If I'm going to stay here then I need a rush! I need something unexpected! I need…" Richie's lips crashed down on hers finishing her sentence and Ellie's heart raced faster than her feet ever did. Her eyes were wide and she was unresponsive at first because of the shock. She quickly caught on and her eyes closed peacefully, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and began to kiss him back. She allowed her tongue to explore the new territory which she now claimed. Richie's hands glided over her back and settled at her waist. It was at this moment it felt like they were the only two people in the universe and everyone else was worlds away. After a few intense moments, they both mutually let go. They stared at each other for only a second before looking down at the floor. Richie rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly; Ellie coughed and straightened out her dress.

"That was… unexpected." She said, Richie nodded and she added, "And definitely a rush…"

"I uh… don't know what came over me." Richie admitted, "It was… an impulse."

"It's alright." Ellie said looking up.

"I'm… sorry." Richie said, not moving his gaze from the floor. Ellie leaned over and kissed him. It was softer and a lot less electrifying than the first time. But Richie was cooperative and when they broke apart this time their eyes locked.

"Don't be sorry, it was welcomed." Ellie smiled, "I may be a crime fighting super hero, but you're much braver than I am, Richie."

"How so?" Richie asked.

"I wasn't sure if I'd ever admit that I have feelings for you." Ellie explained.

"But you always seem so confident." said Richie.

"Are you kidding? I've known you for almost a month and already I've put you in mortal peril. That's just from you knowing you. I'm scared to even think where you'd end up if we dated." She said. Richie grinned placing a hand on hers and his fingers intertwined with her bony ones.

"I'm not scared."

"And that's why you're braver than me."

"Well, maybe it'd be a disaster or maybe it'd be the greatest thing to ever happen to both of us. Either way we won't know unless we try. But dating or not, you're not getting rid of me." Richie said.

"Dakota would be too boring without you anyway." Ellie grinned in response. She was more than willing to give it a try, even it did end up being a catastrophe, she was more than sure it would be a beautiful disaster.

* * *

**Aha yeah, I made em get together ;)**

**Well shucks guys, thanks for all the reviews and positive feedback, and all those who favorited and such. You're all too kind. **

**And keep an eye out for Hold Me Down, which is part 2 of my planned trilogy. **

**I promise there will be loads of Richie/Ellie fluff. **


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